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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2019
IDEAS
When you picture the words superstar architect
- what
comes to mind?
This was the question on the minds of the crowd goers
in the standing roomonly Teaching and Learning Complex
at UWI St Augustine last December.
Architects, designers, engineers and other curious
patrons came out to the Distinguished Open Lecture by
Sir David Adjaye OBE to hear him speak on the topic
“Building Publics”. The lecture was made possible by
the Open Lectures Committee in collaboration with the
Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects and the Board
of Architecture of Trinidad and Tobago.
The anticipation was palpable as people scurried to
find seats during the welcome message of Chair of the
Open Lectures Committee and Master of Ceremonies for
the evening, Professor Christine Carrington. Her words
reminded the audience of Adjaye’s incredible reputation:
“Over the years, we have had a diverse selection of very
knowledgeable and engaging speakers, all at the forefront of
their fields, but I suspect that this is the first time that we’ve
had a speaker who is routinely, in all sincerity, referred to
as a superstar.”
That’s putting it mildly. Adjaye was dubbed an
“architectural visionary” by Time magazine and in 2017
made their list of “100 Most Influential People”, the only
architect among them. In 2009, his design practice, Adjaye
Associates, won a competition to design the prestigious
29,000 sqm Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of
African AmericanHistory and Culture at the National Mall
in Washington, D.C. (2016). Even his residential projects
make history, such as when he designed the private house
in Ghana of Kofi Annan, the late former UN Secretary-
General, where he built a temperature-controlled structure
using not one luxury material.
Looking at the faces in the audience become awash
with awe, I wondered, with such an astronomical pedestal,
what could Adjaye possibly teach our small island? Then
he graced the stage, his British-Ghanaian accent steeped
in soft exactness. He discovered very early on, he assured
us, that “architecture could not just make buildings, but
make meaning in our society and could be something
to express the unique continents and the unique culture
around the world”.
Through a series of slides, Adjaye simply talked his
way through his architectural self-exploration process.
Starting at the beginning of his career where he looked at the
continent of Africa as a magnifying lens for the way human
habitation has adapted and therefore how architecture has
adapted. He visited all 54 countries in Africa, taking photos
as he went along, to imagine an Africa without borders that
was representative of the entire world’s geographies. It took
11 years to create a vast satellite map depicting the ways the
geographies of the land affected the formof the architecture
throughout the continent. Through this methodology of
creating buildings that reflect the climate and culture of a
society, Adjaye showed that for architecture to be light years
ahead it must look back and give back.
SOFT POWER
The transcendent Sir David Adjaye shares his tale of making meaning,
reflecting culture and doing battle for great architecture
B Y J E A N E T T E G . A W A I
Sir David Adjaye with Mr Robert Bermudez, Chancellor of The UWI
at his Distinguished Open Lecture.
PHOTOS: KEYON MITCHELL
Jeanette G. Awai is a freelance writer, stargazer and marketing and communications assistant at The UWI St Augustine Marketing and Communications Office.
This was the case in the construction of the super-
scaled Moscow School of Management, SKOLKOVO, in
2010 – a massive 700,000 sq ft university campus that
married the look and feel of Russian architecture from
100 years ago with the intricate pattern-making found
in African art. The razzle-dazzle of Adjaye’s design came
not only from its beauty, but also from the thoughtful
functionality of it, “A full campus in one building - dorms,
gyms, classrooms, administrative support and a hub for
students from Africa, Europe and the US who now come
to Russia to learn about business”.
In the last part of the evening during the Q&A session,
Adjaye brought the audience back to earth, revealing that
creating visionary and inclusive public spaces is not at all an
easy endeavour, “There’s not a single project that I’ve shown
here that resistance wasn’t part of. Let me not fool you.
Every single project is a huge fight. But I think that anything
new quite rightly has to be questioned and debated…But
architecture has always been a way of imagining the future”.
In the same way, he emphasised that his ability
to collaborate with artists when designing buildings
was because they see the future too, “A culture that is
disconnected from its artists is a lost culture. I’m always
inspired to bring in artists because they ponder civilization
and meaning. They are kind of an amazing resource that is
underused”. The room exploded with resounding applause.
Sitting in the fluorescent light of the auditorium after
the lecture, I thought about the natural light that diffused
throughout Sir David Adjaye’s buildings giving the spaces
a chance to breathe and the public a sense of ease. Perhaps
even in the throes of recession and hardship, Trinidad and
Tobago could followAdjaye’s North Star to find the solution
within ourselves and reflect, restart and rebuild.
Sir David Adjaye’s work can be seen at the
Adjaye Associates
website
:
/
“There’s not a single project
that I’ve shown here that
resistance wasn’t part of. Let
me not fool you. Every single
project is a huge fight. But I
think that anything new quite
rightly has to be questioned
and debated…
But architecture
has always been a
way of imagining
the future”.
