Ghanian-British architect David Adjaye, the founder of Adjaye Associates, has been awarded the inaugural Charlotte Perriand Award, an award created by The Créateurs Design Association & Awards (CDA).

Given in memory of the iconic French architect and designer Charlotte Perriand, Adjaye was awarded this prestigious prize for his buildings that "go beyond becoming city landmarks" and "creating a real dialogue taking place beyond time."

The CDA explains that Adjaye tells the architectural narratives at a larger scale with forms, textures and scales as they directly communicating the communities. 

Le Prix Charlotte Perriand, or the Charlotte Perriand Award was founded in 2022 by the The Créateurs Design Association & Awards. The award honors and commemorates the legacy of Charlotte Perriand. 

"Our mission is to recognize and uphold excellence in the design industry to preserve design integrity and inspire future generations," stated CDA in its website.

The Créateurs Design Association & Awards is based on a peer to peer review, aiming to highlight extraordinary work in the interior design, product design and architecture field by celebrating the people that drive vision. The winner is selected by a network of over 200 professionals from 32 different countries.

The Charlotte Perriand Award will be awarded annually and be given an influential figure who embraces Perriand's "vision and commitment to architecture, design and art".

Adjaye Associates is designing Edo Museum Of West African Art in Nigeria. Image courtesy of Adjaye Associates

"This is the first time the Perriand family has allowed her name to be used beyond her immediate work," stated the organisers. 

Perriand’s daughter, Pernette Perriand-Barsac, said that "When I read [Adjaye’s] words in the press or his approach that he describes on social networks, I see how great [his and my mother’s] proximity is, to the point that a real dialogue takes place beyond time."

"She [Charlotte Perriand] was really expansive in thinking about what the profession could be and understood the role of designers in their responsibility toward making the 21st century as beautiful and as empowering and as edifying [as possible] for people of all races – and for our human civilization to thrive," said David Adjaye. 

Dirty House completed in London in 2002. Adjaye converted a former warehouse into an art studio and apartment building. Image courtesy of Design Indaba

David Adjaye is one of the most influential names in contemporary architecture. His characteristic attributes in buildings, rich materials, artistic layers and strong tectonics in buildings trigger different emotional worlds of users.

"I'm very interested in the history of human activities, not in the history of computer activities. My buildings look like places that the humans want. It’s very important to me," Adjaye told World Architecture Community in an exclusive interview in 2018.

This is not the first prestigious award Adjaye has received. In 2021, he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal For Architecture by The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He was also awarded the 2020 Isamu Noguchi Award by The Noguchi Museum.

Adjaye was named as world’s most influential architect by TIME Magazine in 2017. He received Knighthood for 2017 as part of the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2017. 

Adjaye Associates' new Barbados Heritage District in Newton Plantation. Image courtesy of Adjaye Associates

Sugar Hill Housing in Harlem, New York, Dirty House in Shoreditch, Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which opened its doors in autumn 2016, Stephen Lawrence Centre in London are among his significant projects. 

Adjaye founded his own firm Adjaye Associates in 2000. Adjaye Associates' project portfolio includes projects in various typologies, sizes and scales, ranging from private houses, exhibitions, and furniture design, to major cultural buildings and city masterplans.

His recent projects includes the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion, in collaboration with American artist Theaster Gates, the design of the new Barbados Heritage District in Newton Plantation, the Herry Groce Memorial Pavilion in Brixton, the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

He is also behind the project, called Agenda 111, a project will transforming Ghana’s 111 Hospitals. His firm recently completed a rose-pigmented Cultural Center made of three pavilions in Florida. 

Adjaye Associates is designing Africa Institute campus in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Image © Adjaye Associates

Charlotte Perriand, who passed away in 1999, was a world-renowned French architect and designer. Working with Le Corbusier and his for a decade, she worked with Jean Prouvé in 1940s. Perriand has produced three of Le Corbusier’s most iconic chairs: the B301, B306, and the LC2 Grand Comfort. 

The annual CDA awards celebrates achievements in architecture, interior design, product design, journalism, curation and photography. The program also includes the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, interior designer Iris Apfel was awarded the 2022 Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award. 

The awards gala will be held on 26 March in Paris, France. 

Top image: David Adjaye © Ed Reeve.

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