David Adjaye & Phil Freelon

David Adjaye & Phil Freelon Image

David Adjaye is now recognized as one of the leading architects of his generation in the UK. He formed a partnership in 1994 and quickly developed a reputation as an architect with an artist's sensibility and vision. His ingenious use of materials, bespoke design and ability to sculpt and showcase light have engendered high regard from both the architectural community and wider public.

He reformed his studio in 2000 as Adjaye Associates and has since gone on to win a number of prestigious commissions. Projects have been diverse in scale, audience and geography; collaborations with artists including Chris Ofili and Olafur Eliasson, exhibition design, temporary pavilions and private homes in both the UK and the United States. More recently, major arts centers and important public buildings across London, Oslo and Denver have demonstrated David's considered approach to understanding the needs of the constituency served by each building and a respect for integration with their existing locale.

"My interest in architecture is to find strategies which emanate new senses of publicness. What I mean by that is new ways of seeing each other and new ways of being with each other. I see architecture as an agency to facilitate these kinds of opportunities in public life."

Phil Freelon is a native of Philadelphia. Following graduation from North Carolina State University's College of Design with a Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture) and top design honors, he went on to earn his Master of Architecture degree from MIT.

Freelon's work has been published in national professional journals including Architecture, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, and most recently in Contract magazine where he was named Designer of the Year for 2008. Metropolis and Metropolitan Home magazines and the New York Times have also featured Freelon and his firm.

His furniture design has been recognized nationally including first prize in the PPG Furniture Design Competition and design contract work with Herman Miller. The Freelon Group has received twenty-six AIA design awards (regional, state and local) and has also received AIA North Carolina’s Outstanding Firm Award in 2001.

“Part of my personal makeup is that I’m an optimist,” says Freelon. “I’m in a profession where people like me are represented at the one percent level, but to me that brings an opportunity to be noticed in a homogeneous environment, which is something that architecture firms struggle a lot to do.”

"Over the years the folks who select architects have become more and more diverse, so if we can bring a team that reflects diversity I think it resonates with our clients,” Freelon notes.

 

Keynote

January 6, 4 PM
Harrison Auditorium, NC A&T State University Campus (Free and open to the public.)

Collaboration: The Creative and Strategic Advantage

Join David and Phil as they share their insights on the value of strategic alliances and collaboration. These two world-renowned architects will draw on a spectacular case in point: their own international competition winning design for The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Downloads and Additional Resources

Download a PDF file of David and Phil's presentation.

Workshops

January 7, 12 PM
Gateway University Research Park, 5900 Summit Avenue, Browns Summit, NC 27214

David Adjaye & Phil Freelon Workshop

Most design-thinking in business is a group process. David and Phil will help designers and business people understand the potential power of that collaboration.

January 14, 12 PM
Gateway University Research Park, 5900 Summit Avenue, Browns Summit, NC 27214

Follow-up Workshop

Our follow-up workshop allows participants to distill the approaches and techniques they have learned from David and Phil and apply them to problem-solving in their specific businesses and industries.