Until this summer, David Adjaye represented one of the most positive stories in the international architectural community: a Ghanian/British architect taking his unique vision across the world.
Now that three women have accused Adjaye of sexual misconduct, Adjaye looks like just another Starchitect whose super-sized ego made him incapable of being a decent human being.
This sad story is yet another piece of evidence that the Starchitect system—still promoted by architecture schools and the architectural press—is rotten to the core. How many times do we have to put out collective hand on the stove to know that we’re going to get burned?
I suspect some people are holding out, hoping that if enough women reach positions of power in the world of architecture, everything will be okay. I am less sanguine—power is power, and women are quite capable of abusing it, as well, even if those abuses manifest themselves differently than the stereotypical transgressions of a lecherous old fool. Or, perhaps, it becomes the same old same old, as the allegations against Lizzo suggest?
Regardless, maybe, just maybe, the tide is beginning to turn. Rowan Moore, the architectural critic of The Guardian, cuts to the quick of the matter in his insightful opinion piece addressing the Adjaye situation and the power dynamics of hero worship.