Architect
Born in 1966 in Tanzania to Ghanaian diplomat parents, David Adjaye spent his early formative years traveling throughout Africa before settling in the UK to complete his education. In 1993 he graduated from the Royal College of Art, and a year later started his own practice called Adjaye Architects. Within a decade, he has made himself one of the best-known architects in the country, with a series of magazine-friendly houses for famous clients - Ewan McGregor, Chris Ofili, Janet Street-Porter - and collaborations with artists including Olafur Eliasson. He has been nominated for Stirling prize in 2006 and a short while later awarded an OBE (Officer in The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).
Adjaye’s work incorporates his African heritage to classical and modernist architecture priciples. This is most evident in three of his projects: the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, The Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, and Rivington Place in Shoreditch.
I thinks it is important to look at some principles of African art in order to decipher aesthetical decisions in Rivington Place.
