Adjaye Associates will design a new campus in downtown Sharjah for The Africa Institute. The Institute is the first center of its kind fully dedicated to the advanced study, research, and documentation of Africa and the African diaspora in the Arab world. The development of The Africa Institute is spearheaded by Cornell University Professor Salah M. Hassan, who was appointed its founding Director in 2018.
The design will create an enclosed 343,175-sf campus with five wings between four and seven stories each, connected by a series of open-air interior courtyards that span the entire ground floor and feature fountains and landscaping with native plants. All four facades will include entryways to welcome the public and connect The Institute with surrounding institutions, organizations, and public walkways.
The campus will include spaces of differing character and scale for classes and seminars, a research library and climatized archive facility, a flexible auditorium and performance space, an exhibition gallery, a restaurant and cafe, and a bookstore. The Institute is also commissioning artists to create site-specific installations throughout the public spaces of the new building, which will be announced at a later date.
“We selected David Adjaye to create the first purpose-built home for this vital institution because of his experience in designing buildings that foster learning, collaboration, and community building,” said The Africa Institute President Hoor Al Qasimi, in a release. “We started working together in 2017 so that the vision for The Africa Institute and the building that supports its critical mission would be developed hand-in-hand.”
Following a two-year collaboration, the design for The Africa Institute will be unveiled on Oct. 8, 2020.
Related Stories
| Sep 29, 2011
Busch Engineering, Science and Technology Residence Hall opens to Rutgers students
With a total development cost of $57 million, B.E.S.T. is the first on-campus residence hall constructed by Rutgers since 1994.
| Sep 14, 2011
Research shows large gap in safety focus
82% of public, private and 2-year specialized colleges and universities believe they are not very effective at managing safe and secure openings or identities.
| Sep 12, 2011
LACCD’s $6 billion BIM connection
The Los Angeles Community College District requires every design-build team in its massive modernization program to use BIM, but what they do with their 3D data after construction is completed may be the most important change to business as usual.
| Sep 12, 2011
Living Buildings: Are AEC Firms up to the Challenge?
Modular Architecture > You’ve done a LEED Gold or two, maybe even a LEED Platinum. But are you and your firm ready to take on the Living Building Challenge? Think twice before you say yes.
| May 18, 2011
Major Trends in University Residence Halls
They’re not ‘dorms’ anymore. Today’s collegiate housing facilities are lively, state-of-the-art, and green—and a growing sector for Building Teams to explore.
| May 18, 2011
Raphael Viñoly’s serpentine-shaped building snakes up San Francisco hillside
The hillside location for the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine building at the University of California, San Francisco, presented a challenge to the Building Team of Raphael Viñoly, SmithGroup, DPR Construction, and Forell/Elsesser Engineers. The 660-foot-long serpentine-shaped building sits on a structural framework 40 to 70 feet off the ground to accommodate the hillside’s steep 60-degree slope.
| Apr 13, 2011
Duke University parking garage driven to LEED certification
People parking their cars inside the new Research Drive garage at Duke University are making history—they’re utilizing the country’s first freestanding LEED-certified parking structure.
| Apr 12, 2011
Rutgers students offered choice of food and dining facilities
The Livingston Dining Commons at Rutgers University’s Livingston Campus in New Brunswick, N.J., was designed by Biber Partnership, Summit, N.J., to offer three different dining rooms that connect to a central servery.