Without so much as a fanfare a new David Adjaye structure opened in New York this past November. The NYC outpost of the Chinese contemporary art gallery Arario at 521 W.25th St is a 7,000-square-foot Adjaye designed space. His second space in New York after his four-story studio for artists Lorna Simpson and James Casebere on Vanderbilt Ave in Fort Greene, Brooklyn which is about to be featured in a new Rizzoli book Brooklyn Modern.
Another bit of news that slipped me by was the public (well, high end art gallery) release of David Adjaye's first furniture collection Monoforms, each design is named after a different city in Africa. So far the collection only features four pieces each fabricated in Hassan Green Granite and Solid Walnut - supposedly in the future they will also be made in Polyurethane Foam & Glass Reinforced Polymer. Shame he decided not to produce his NAME chair.
Above is of one of Adjaye's most recently completed domestic projects - The Sunken House, a 150sq m, timber-frame prefabricated house on De Beauvior Rd in the De Beauvoir Estate section of Hackney, East London for photographer Ed Reeve. Ed has extensively documented the constructions of the house (which supposedly only took five days) on a special website aptly titled Ed's Shed. You can also see Ed's photos of Adjaye's work for the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Jurgen Teller, Rivington Place and others in the architecture section of his photography website and here is a New York Times story on the building that reveals the building cost around $1 million. Not prefab for the common man then by any means.
Meanwhile if you're visiting London check out recently opened Adjaye designed arts centre Rivington Place at Rivington St also in east London.
If you're rich, you might want to consider buying Adjaye's Lost House, Crinan Street, London N1, which comes complete with indoor pool and a sunken cinema for sale at the measly price of £2,700,000. LOL
You can also see the man in person lecturing at Harvard Graduate School of Design in April 2007 part one / part two and Walker Art Center in November 2007. Adjaye is currently working on a book about contemporary African architecture. Here's an interview were Adjaye talks about his relationship with his native Tanzania, and why artists are so rewarding to work with.
“Buildings are deeply emotive structures which form our psyche. People think they’re just things they manoeuvre through. But the makeup of a person is influenced by the nature of spaces.” David Adjaye
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