American-Jamaican Hip-hop architect
Sekou Cooke |
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Occupation | Architect |
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Sekou Cooke is an American-Jamaican architect, author and educator, and is associated with the style of Hip-hop architecture. He is the principal of Sekou Cooke Studio. Cooke is one of the founding members of the Black Reconstruction Collective.[1]
Experience
Cooke was born and raised in Jamaica and received a B.Arch from Cornell University and a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design.[2] He is a licensed architect in the State of New York.[citation needed] He was an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University.[2]
Awards
Cooke received a Faculty Design Award in 2020 by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) [3] and a Graham Foundation Award in 2018 for his project 'Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture'.[4] He is the recipient of the 2017 Architectural League Prize.[5] In 2021 he was named the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute fellow. The fellowship is awarded by the W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.[6]
Work
Cooke is the author of the book 'Hip-Hop Architecture' published by Bloomsbury in 2021.[7] His book references the impact of hip-hop culture on the discipline of architecture and the built environment. The content formalizes a close reading of existing and historic design paradigms within creative fields and its impact on underrepresented and black communities.[8] His body of work was shown during a solo exhibition at the Center for Architecture in New York in 2018.[9]
Cooke's selected work is part of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was included in the 2021 'Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America' exhibition alongside Walter Hood, Germane Barnes, V.Mitch McEwen, Emanuel Admassu and others. It was the first exhibition in the history of MoMA featuring only African-American designers, artists and architects. His project 'We Outchea: Hip Hop Fabrications and Public Space', examined and highlighted the historic demolition of African-American communities by former city planners of Syracuse, NY.[10]
In 2020, Cooke was invited alongside Refik Anadol and Rael San Fratello to envision a memorial for the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooke's proposal named 'Unmonument' was a theoretical approach shifting the notion of a static monument toward the application of in-flux processes instead.[11]
In 2021, he was part of a new pilot program created by the City of Los Angeles to design Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU). Initiated by L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti, the program asked a group of selected architects to envision and design housing units to tackle the cities rising needs for affordable housing while enhancing the city's architectural design ambitions.[12][13]
Opinions
Cooke had noted Mike Ford claims the origins of Hip-hop architecture lay with both Le Corbusier and Robert Moses, Cooke himself attributes the public works in New York City by Moses were by far the most important foundation.[14]
Bibliography
References
External links
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