David Adjaye’s Smithsonian Museum named Design of the Year 2017

The David Adjaye Associates’ Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC has been named the overall winner of the Design Museum’s annual awards

As well as winning the architecture category, the US$540 million museum, was handed the Beazley Design of the Year award for 2017 ahead of scores of other finalists from around the world, including a high-performance hijab by Nike, a stairclimbing wheelchair and ink manufactured from air pollution.

The judges praised Adjaye’s 39,000 square meter (420,000 square feet) building, which features a bronze filigree cladding, for its ‘exciting and impactful design’ and for ‘capturing the spirit of the year’.

National Museum of African American History and Culture; construction site image taken on October 23, 2015. PHOTO/Getty Images

Adjaye’s victory is the latest in a series of major successes for the architect over the last 12 months.
In May the 51-year-old collected his knighthood at Buckingham Palace and a few months later he won the contest to design a US$57 million national Holocaust memorial next to the Palace of Westminster.

The judging panel for the Design Museum’s prestigious annual accolades, described as a celebration of ‘design that promotes or delivers change, enables access, extends design practice or captures the spirit of the year’.

Source: The Architect’s Journal