UNC Charlotte's School of Architecture welcomes Sekou Cooke to its faculty as the Director of the Master of Urban Design (MUD) program. Cooke is an acclaimed architect, educator, curator, and researcher whose work exemplifies a career in shaping design practice with social justice, sustainability, and public service through architecture and urban planning. 

Before his transition as the new Director, Cooke is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Syracuse University. The Jamaican-born architect received his Bachelor of Architecture from  Cornell University and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University. His practice Sekou Cooke Studio "brings thoughtful processes and rigorous experimentation to a vast array of project types from public, non-profit, and residential works" in addition to "speculative developments locally and internationally." 

As an educator and researcher, his latest work focuses on the fields of Hip-Hop Architecture. In 2018 Archinect spoke with Cooke during an episode of Archinect Sessions where he discussed his exhibition at the Center for Architecture, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture."

Listen to episode 129 of Archinect Sessions, “Hip Hop Architecture with Sekou Cooke”.

Recently, Cooke's work was part of MoMA's latest exhibition, "Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America," which is on display until May 31st. His project We Outchea: Hip-Hop Fabrications and Public Space outlines public housing and his goals for transforming a site in Syracuse.

Blaine Brownell, Director of UNC Charlotte's School of Architecture shares, "Sekou Cooke is a rising star in the architecture world and has a national reputation based on his innovative, activist-based approaches to elevating Black voices in the field. With his hire as the new director of the Master of Urban Design program, we anticipate that his scholarship on hip-hop architecture and urbanism, pioneering installations like MoMA's recent ‘Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America,’ accomplished teaching at one of the nation's top architecture programs and prodigious leadership potential will contribute immeasurably to our school, college, University and the city of Charlotte.”

Cooke will join UNC Charlotte's architecture faculty this August.