MUNICH.- The acclaimed architect David Adjaye is the subject of a major survey exhibition at Haus der Kunst. David Adjaye is one of the most significant architects working today. He is known for a broad spectrum of notable projects, from houses and libraries, to museums and larger scale urban master plans. Rather than fostering outmoded traditions, he looks to reinterpret location-based architectural motifs and cultural norms to create projects that reveal and rethink societal patterns and modes of behavior, resulting in ingenious outcomes that speak to the time in which they are made and address contemporary concerns.

The exhibition comes at a significant moment in Adjaye's career - his Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), a historically important and iconic building, will be inaugurated in 2016 and is already gaining broad recognition. The establishment of the NMAAHC is the culmination of a decades-long struggle to recognise the importance of the black community in the social fabric of American life. The site is located on the corner between the National Mall and the Ellipse, the landscaped space in front of the White House, and it overlooks the Washington Monument. The crown-like form of the corona ascends in three stages and refers to a sculpture by the early-twentieth-century Yoruba sculptor Olowe of Ise. Significant political and financial resources have laid the foundations for this long-awaited symbol for the African American contribution to the nation's history and identity.

The exhibition explores the multifaceted approach of this inspiring architect. An engaging exhibition design with installations that visitors can physically explore, as well as drawings, models, sketches, films, and large-scale fragments of projects, emphasizes the striking materiality and formal qualities of Adjaye's work and illustrates how he develops a project through concept to realization. For his projects, Adjaye has continued to look to art for inspiration, making buildings that insist on being accommodated as objects that share the space with those who inhabit them.

Besides his work as an architect, Adjaye is also widely recognized for his expertise on African architecture and urbanism. The results of his extensive fieldwork in Africa have been published in several acclaimed books, e.g. in "African Metropolitan Architecture", published in 2011, he systematically explored the diversity of concepts for life and identity. Original research materials will also be presented in the exhibition - contributing to the understanding of Adjaye's own practice as well as to the complex, yet underexposed history of African innovation in architecture.

From museums to galleries and university campuses to libraries, his buildings are defined by their ability to develop and to engage communities. Generating a discourse of public encounter, the buildings dissolve barriers and encourage permeability, while accomodating difference and inspiring an active negotiation of space. David Adjaye's earliest buildings were private commissions, often created in collaboration with artist friends, such as the homes and studios he designed for Chris Ofili, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, and Lorna Simpson and James Casebere. These structures experiment with the contrast between hermetically sealed fronts and unexpectedly generous openings at the rear. Thus, the Elektra House in London has a closed street elevation that resembles an abstract painting made of composite wood panels. The daylight that illuminates the interior falls through openings on the rear and from above. Surprisingly, this approach provides an abundance of natural light.

The entrance side of the Stephen Lawrence Centre, which opened in 2007, does the exact opposite of the sealed façade of Elektra. Meant to be translucent, it is overlaid with an intricate pattern. Light falls into the interior through a perforated metal facade and, on sunny days, creates abstract patterns on the walls and floor, evoking the dappled light effects of sun on water. The building is dedicated to the memory of a black teenager killed in a racially motivated crime in 1993. It houses media, class and meeting rooms - an infrastructure which is suited to assist youths disadvantaged by the city's educational and social systems. The Stephen Lawrence Centre foregoes pure functionalism and icon-like monumentality and receives its users with a welcoming gesture rather than patronizing them. This example illustrates how socially effective architecture can be. This quality has earned David Adjaye commissions like the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo (2006-10) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. (2009-16).

Another of David Adjaye's key concerns is to respond appropriately to the geographic and climatic conditions of a structure's respective environment. This becomes clear - again - in its use of natural lighting as well as its façade design. In temperate countries like those in Central and Northern Europe, Adjaye often guides unfiltered light from above into the interior. In countries, however, where solar gain is unwanted, he protects the inhabitants from direct light through the use of double membranes. The materials David Adjaye uses change color according to the position of the sun, and assume different qualities at different times of the day and depending on the seasons. His solutions are developed for the respective local climate and geographical, historical and social context. Here, David Adjaye relies not only on his experience, research and cosmopolitan background; he now also has offices on four different continents and a permanent research team of social scientists.

"Form, Heft, Material" presents more than 45 projects, both completed and ongoing, since Adjaye Associates was founded (in 2000). The presentation is divided into six sections: inspirational drawings and materials; small-scale monuments like the accessible pavilion "Horizon", the monoforms and furniture; the section Living Spaces, including the Elektra House and Dirty House, Seven and Silverlight; Democracy of Knowledge presenting public buildings (Idea Store, Stephen Lawrence Centre, Cape Coast Slavery Museum); urban buildings with socio-political functions, including the Moscow School of Management, Sugar Hill (apartments for socially vulnerable tenants); urban studies and masterplanning; and a section presenting Adjaye research on African metropolitain architecture.

A new documentary film by Oliver Hardt, "David Adjaye - Collaborations", has its premiere at Haus der Kunst as part of the exhibition, too.