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The New York Times gives Lesley Lokko the profile treatment ahead of next week’s Venice Biennale

2023-05-10T10:56:00-04:00

Although the Biennale is hardly the first major exhibition to focus on Black and diasporic practitioners, the cascading crises of climate change, rapid urbanization, migration, global health emergencies and a deep imperative to decolonize institutions and spaces — starting with the historically Eurocentric Biennale itself — arguably make Lokko’s focus on hybrid forms of practice timely, be it planners as policy experts or artist-environmentalists.

Lokko repeated to the Times her interest in using the Biennale platform to disabuse stigmas about African identity before discussing her own experiences with identity, path to architecture, and the potential she and others are striving to present to the world.

“The ability to be several things at once — traditional and modern, African and global, colonized and independent — is a strong thread running through the continent and the Diaspora,” she told the paper. “We’re used to having to think about resources, about switching on a light with no guarantee of electricity. We’re able to grapple with change. That capacity to overcome, to negotiate, to navigate ones’ surroundings is going to take center stage.”

Events kick off May 20th with the announcement of the Golden Lion and other select award winners.

2023 Venice Architecture Biennale to highlight diversity’s role in guiding 'The Laboratory of the Future'

2023-02-22T15:24:00-05:00

The 18th Venice Architecture Biennale officially announced its 89-strong slate of participants for this year’s exhibition titled “The Laboratory of the Future,” curated by the Scottish-Ghanaian architect and academic Lesley Lokko.

Opening May 20th, the Biennale will run through November 26th and feature an even 50-50 gender parity and the representation of more than half of this year’s participating artists identifying with the African diaspora. The diversity highlighted by the selection underscores the broader theme focused on the social effects of climate change and decolonization while attending to Lokko’s curatorial aim to “put forward ambitious and creative ideas that help us imagine a more equitable and optimistic future in common.”

Theaster Gates, Adjaye Associates, Hood Design Studio, atelier masōmī, and Pritzker-winner Francis Kéré were among those selected to participate in the exhibition. The exhibition is divided into six parts and includes participation from notable s...

Architects Lesley Lokko and Indy Johar recognized in King Charles' New Year honors list

2023-01-03T18:24:00-05:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced that Scottish-Ghanaian architect and academic Lesley Lokko has been awarded an OBE for her services to architecture and education in King Charles III’s first New Year's honors list.

Founder and Director of the African Futures Institute and former Dean of the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, Lokko’s growing collection of honors and accolades includes the 2020 RIBA Annie Spink Award and being appointed to curate the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, making her the first Black architect and fourth woman to do so.

Previously on Archinect: Lesley Lokko chosen as curator for 2023 Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition

Lokko was joined by fellow architect Indy Johar, co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, a nonprofit strategic design and development company, who was awarded an MBE for his services to architecture.

Indy Johar. Image: Dark Matter Labs

Johar also co-founded multi-disciplinary design studio Archi...

Lesley Lokko's African Futures Institute receives a $150,000 Mellon Foundation grant

2022-06-21T17:36:00-04:00

The African Futures Institute (AFI) has announced that it has received a grant totalling $150,000 from the Mellon Foundation.

As stated on the Foundation’s website, the funding will be used “to support program planning and activities for the establishment of an independent graduate school of architecture and public events platform in Accra, Ghana.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by African Futures Institute (@african_futures_institute)

Founded and directed by Lesley Lokko, the AFI aims to create a world-class teaching and research institute, in Accra, that will merge a wide range of built environment disciplines, from architecture to urban design, all through the lens of the African continent and the Diaspora. The AFI will offer a number of Masters-level programs, along with short courses and workshops for practicing architects. AFI’s first Masters-level program will be in architectural writing and criticism and is set to begin in 2024.

Previously on A...

Lesley Lokko chosen as curator for 2023 Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition

2021-12-14T13:55:00-05:00

Today the Board of La Biennale di Venezia announced the appointment of Lesley Lokko as its curator for the 2023 Venice Biennale Architecture Exhibition.

Lokko is an esteemed architectural leader, best-selling novelist, and academic advocate whose work within and outside architecture circles has proven her a formidable force for change. Upon her appointment, Lokko shared with La Biennale di Venezia, "A new world order is emerging, with new centers of knowledge production and control. New audiences are also emerging, hungry for different narratives, different tools, and different languages of space, form, and place."

Image from African Futures Institute website. Image courtesy of AfricanFuturesInstitute.com

This past year, Lokko's work and efforts within architectural academia have made headlines. While her resignation as Dean of CCNY's Spitzer School of Architecture in October 2020 shook the architecture community, that did not stop Lokko's unshakeable efforts and dedication to her ...