Adjaye is overseeing the newest installment of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s “Selects” series, which spotlights the little-known West African textiles in the museum’s permanent collection. [...] It also offers the celebrated architect a chance to explore the surprising connections between textile making and building design.

“What’s interesting to me is this idea of fabric and weaving as a kind of abstraction of making places that people come together in,” he says. — Smithsonian.com

The undoing of the master narratives of modernism should not be taken as an opportunity for an architecture of spectacle and fantasy, but instead one that, utilizing the lessons of the past, speaks to the complexities of the present and the forces that shape us. It is crucial to deconstruct the idea that design can be universal and instead, to think in terms of an architecture that derives inspiration from the specificity of geography, culture and place. — huffingtonpost.com

The top five floors abruptly cantilever. Some neighbors say it looks like a prison. An “arty fortress,” was New York Magazine’s phrase.

I like the building’s exterior. Most people I’ve quizzed on the street during a half-dozen visits to the area turn out to like it, too. — New York Times

We cannot rely on visionaries and authoritarians to generate more, and better, housing. They might deliver, with enormous risk and perseverance, through personal connections and their willingness to invest their own equity or to defer their developers’ fee, as BHC has done. But visionaries and authoritarians are few and far between. Rather, we need to formalize ways of rethinking and requantifying net-to-gross, studio-to-three-bedrooms, block-and-plank formulas. — urbanomnibus.net

Adjaye himself is weary of people obsessing over his being black in a profession which, in Europe and the United States, is very white. Which is not to say that he regards his heritage is unimportant. "I can't win with this one," he says. "Everyone has a view on it. I am an architect first of all, whose background is complex. I use the continent of Africa as a background, But I also grew up in London." — theguardian.com

DESIGNING_SOUTHAFRICA (D_ZA) in collaboration with the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) and the Mayor of Johannesburg are proud to announce the construction of an urban pavilion designed by world-renowned architect David Adjaye OBE. To be constructed in a public space within the Park Station Precinct in Johannesburg’s inner city, the project will highlight this historical junction in the city, while activating underutilised public space using innovative design. — designingsouthafrica.com

This year, David Adjaye, whom President Obama refers to as his favourite architect, is at number one on the list, selected by a panel of independent judges working from a definition of influence as "the ability to alter events and change lives in a positive way". — guardian.co.uk

Adjaye first designed a free-standing floor mirror, then added a wall version after Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, the owner of Salon 94, said clients would want them. There are options — fully or semi-reflective, or — Adjaye’s personal preference — a black mirror, which he said is “more about silhouette and profile, not showing every detail of a person.” — tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com

When the Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the National Mall in 2015, it will be "not just a record of tragedy, but a celebration of life," as President Obama said during the ground breaking ceremony on the site today. — whitehouse.gov

David Adjaye, Principal Architect of Adjaye Associates, is this year's recipient of the Design Miami/ Designer of the Year Award. David will be commissioned to design and install a site-specific pavilion, entitled Genesis, along the Miami Beachfront in line with the show scheduled for November 29 - December 4, 2011. — huffingtonpost.com