Kunlé Adeyemi

Kunlé Adeyemi was born on the and is a Nigerian architect, urbanist and creative researcher. Adeyemi is founder and principal of NLÉ, an architecture, design and urbanism practice, based in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Adeyemi studied at the University of Lagos in Nigeria and Princeton University in New Jersey, the United States. Before starting his office in the Netherlands, he worked nearly a decade at Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).

Early life Adekunle Adeyemi was born and raised in Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, and studied and started his early career in Lagos. His father was a modernist architect and started one of the first indigenous architecture firms in North Nigeria in the 1970s. In his mid-teens, Adeyemi had the opportunity to design his first house, for a friend of his father. In 2005, Adeyemi received a Post-Professional degree at Princeton University School of Architecture in New Jersey. At that university, Adeyemi investigated with Peter Eisenman, the rapid urbanization and the role of market economies in developing cities of the Global South, focusing on Lagos.

Early career In his early career, Adeyemi worked on projects in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of Nigeria. After that, Adeyemi joined OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture) in 2002, where he was Senior Associate and worked for about nine years alongside its award-winning founder Rem Koolhaas. There, Adeyemi led the following projects, in different stages: Qatar Foundation Headquarters, the Central Library and the Strategic Studies Center, in the Education City in Doha The 4th Mainland Bridge and Master Plan in Lagos New Court Rothschild Bank project in London (2006). This bank is about to open soon Master plan concept for Abuja – AIST, Nigeria in 2006 for the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2006, opened in November 2007 The Seoul National University Museum project in 2005 The S-project Masterplan for Seoul in 2004 The Leeum Museum in Seoul in 2004.

Current work and projects Currently, Adeyemi runs his architecture, design and urbanism practice called NLÉ, located in Amsterdam. Among others, Adeyemi conducted with NLÉ the following activities: Building prototype housing for urban tropic environment. Lagos Photo project with the African Artists' Foundation. Makoko Floating School (collapsed June 2016). MFS II and MFS III: the 2nd and 3rd iterations of his Makoko Floating School Project

Academic contribution Adeyemi gave and gives lectures and workshops at universities and conferences in Amsterdam, Zurich, Delft, Guggenheim, and published several articles on architecture and urbanism: At PICNIC 2011 (yearly creative conference), Adeyemi spoke about organic urban growth versus city planning Adeyemi was visiting critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in America, the Architectural Association in London, and the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam In 2006, Adeyemi was keynote speaker at the Guggenheim Symposium "Contamination, Impure Architecture", next to Zaha Hadid, Sanford Kwinter, and Alex McDowell Adeyemi was in 2006 a teacher at the Urban Body Studio of the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture.