Sir David Adjaye Awarded Panerai London Design Medal in 2016

 

The architect Sir David Adjaye won this year's Panerai London Design Medal, making him the tenth winner of the prestigious award. The announcement, made on September 20, 2016, at the London Design Festival, included three additional medal winners, including Kenneth Grange, the industrial designer. 

In its coverage, Dezeen quoted the award judges calling Adjaye "an inspiration for the younger generation."

The latest of Adjaye's designs, the much anticipated National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., opens to the public on September 24, 2016. The building has drawn renewed attention to the prolific architect's achievements. Last year, the Art Institute of Chicago held a mid-career survey of Adjaye's work across scales, from furniture to urban planning. 

Adjaye began a relationship with Knoll with the design of the Washington Collection for Knoll™—the architect's first foray into furniture design. Knoll announced the final set of pieces in the collection in 2015 with the launch of Prism™. Also in 2015, KnollTextiles launched Adjaye's first textiles designs with the Adjaye Collection, which displays the architect's unique perspective on geometric and organic systems and speaks to the rich and varied landscape and culture of African metropolises. 

The London Design Medal celebrates "the achievements of designers who are making or who have made a significant difference to our lives through innovation, originality and imagination." The Panerai Design Medal has been awarded annually since 2007 to designers who have made "an outstanding contribution to London and design," in the award's language. Past winners include Peter Saville, Zaha Hadid, Paul Smith and Thomas Heatherwick. 

The London Design Festival is open to the public until September 25, 2016.