GSA Architecture Week Lecture:
Productive Synthesis: An Approach to Designing Contemporary African Architecture by Studio Contra / Olayinka Dosekun-Adjei
Date: 29 August 2024
Time: 18:30 – 20:00 SAST
Venue: GSA Home
JBS Park
69 Kingsway Avenue
Auckland Park, Johannesburg
Studio Contra is an architectural, urban and interior design practice based in Lagos, Nigeria with ongoing projects in Nigeria and Ghana and was founded in 2017 by Jeffrey Adjei (B.Arch, M.Arch, Canterbury) and Olayinka Dosekun-Adjei (BA Oxon, M.Arch Harvard).
The studio is committed to the delivery of innovative and thoughtful architecture and spaces within a West African context, interested in prompting design explorations that make intelligent and imaginative leaps between architectural past, present and future. Our process is inquisitive and concept-driven; in search of solutions that uniquely and directly confront the challenges of each brief, we seek to unlock hidden value for clients and wider communities. Our projects rest on three values – CONCEPT, CULTURE and CRAFT. All three link to a human-centred approach to design and the desire to create surprise, design and engagement in the built environment.
Alongside architectural practice, Olayinka and Jeffrey have taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2023) and LT Ranch Summer School in Lithuania (2015 - 2024) respectively, bringing a contemporary African interpretation to their approach to educational projects with students.
Studio Contra has been featured in publications such as Architecture Record (Design Vanguard 2023), Wallpaper magazine and RIBA 100 Women Architects, and is considered a leading design firm in West African. Studio Contra is registered with RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and ARCON (Architects Registration Council of Nigeria).