Lesley Lokko: The Latest Architecture and News

French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh has been recognized on the TIME100 Next 2025 list, an annual ranking of emerging leaders and innovators across disciplines. Known for her sensitive approach to context and materiality, Ghotmeh has built an international portfolio that bridges tradition and modernity. In her TIME profile, written by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, Ghotmeh is praised for combining historical awareness with forward-looking experimentation. The acknowledgment positions her as the only architect on this year's list, highlighting the continued presence of design voices in a ranking that typically spans entertainment, politics, science, and business.

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Lesley Lokko, the Scottish-Ghanaian architect, curator of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, and the first Black woman to receive the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, has recently launched Nomadic African Studio, an educational program for young architects. The initiative is organized by Lokko's African Futures Institute (AFI) and is inspired by her experience establishing the Biennale College Architettura in 2023, a program for graduate students, recent graduates, early-career academics, and emerging practitioners to explore new possibilities for architectural education, which has also been continued for the 2025 edition. Nomadic African Studio consists of a series of fully funded, month-long studios across the African continent, "basing locations on themes, rather than places." The first edition is set to begin in July 2025, in Fez, Morocco.

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During the opening week of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, a consortium of six major architecture awards, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Holcim Foundation Awards, the EUmies Awards, the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, the OBEL Award, and the Ammodo Architecture Award, convened at TBA21–Academy's Ocean Space for a critical discussion titled "Beyond the Prize." This forum aimed to reflect on the role, relevance, and future potential of architecture awards amidst pressing social and environmental challenges. ArchDaily attended the public event and took the opportunity to ask the participants: What would the field of architecture look like if we stopped organizing architecture awards?

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The 63rd edition of the Salone del Mobile will take place in Milan from April 8 to 13, 2025. Dating back to 1961, Salone del Mobile is a trade fair that covers a wide range of interior design products. The theme of this edition focuses on exploring the deep connections between humanity and design, aiming to establish the event as a creative platform beyond its commercial functions. The fair also serves as a laboratory for experimentation and the exchange of ideas, where new prototypes for furniture and domestic spaces are presented in settings that bring different narratives about ways of living to life. In addition to the furniture exhibition, the event will feature installations, conferences, and workshops, all taking place over the five days at Milan's Rho Fiera fairgrounds.

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Lesley Lokko, a Ghanaian-Scottish academic, writer, and curator, has been named one of the BBC's 100 most influential women of 2024. The prestigious list highlights women from around the globe who are recognized for their resilience and their contributions toward driving change in their respective fields. Lokko's inclusion reflects her groundbreaking work in architectural education, her commitment to diversity and inclusion, and her focus on addressing global challenges like decolonization and decarbonization.

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On behalf of His Majesty the King, Ghanian-Scottish architect Lesley Lokko has been officially awarded the 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Held at RIBA London headquarters, the medal was presented by RIBA President Muyiwa Oki, acknowledging Lokko’s dedication to promoting diverse perspectives in architectural practice and education. As the curator of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, she has been working to explore the overlaps between architecture and race, while shifting focus to Africa and its diaspora in the industry.

Architects Lesley Lokko and Marina Tabassum have been selected in TIME Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People of 2024.’ Known as the TIME 100, the list is an annual compilation of individuals who have made significant impacts on the world in various fields such as politics, technology, entertainment, and more. Each person on the list is profiled by a guest writer, often someone who is also prominent in their field. Selected by Sarah M. Whiting, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Marina Tabassum features in the Innovators chapter, while Lesley Lokko, selected by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, is recognized as a Pioneer.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is set to present an expansive exhibition focused on Tropical Modernism, an architectural movement that emerged in the late 1940s. British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry were instrumental in developing this approach, combining modernism’s functional goals with local climate adaptations in warm and humid weather. This movement, which embodies Britain's unique contribution to international modernism, evolved against a backdrop of anti-colonial resistance, blending colonial architectural principles with local needs.

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In early 2018, spatial practitioner and Bartlett lecturer Neba Sere hosted a panel discussion at London's Architecture Foundation, where she was one of six young trustees. The topic: beginnings. How to go about them, move ahead, and transform them into something that lasts. Six years later, she looks back on the event as a beginning in itself: that day marked the creation of a WhatsApp group that would turn into Black Females in Architecture (BFA). BFA is now a 500-strong global membership network co-directed by Sere and fellow architects Selasi Setufe and Akua Danso.

BFA was initiated in response to the need for visibility of black women and female-identifying people with black heritage in architecture and the built environment. Last year, the group celebrated its fifth anniversary with the showing of a short film and a panel discussion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Now, after putting in the groundwork of spreading information about the lack of diversity and equality in the industry and increasing their numbers, BFA is gearing up to drive physical change.

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Moderated by David Basulto, Co-Founder and editor-in-chief at ArchDaily, the panel featured Jury Chairs for the Holcim Awards 2023 competition, Lesley Lokko, Belinda Tato, Craig Dykers, Manit Rastogi, and Tatiana Bilbao, who explained how the winning projects contributed to the industry's global knowledge network across regions, and how the construction industry is heading towards a sustainable practice.

The Panel Discussion took place on November 19th, 2023 at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, in Venice, Italy.

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The 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia closed on November 26th. A total of 285,000 people visited the exhibition, making it the second most highly attended Architecture Biennale in its history. Named "The Laboratory of the Future," this edition led by curator Lesley Lokko, has been the first to focus on Africa and its diaspora, exploring the “fluid and enmeshed culture of people of African descent that now straddles the globe,” in the words of the curator, with themes of decolonization and decarbonization.

This edition has attracted a wide array of visitors, 38% of whom are represented by students and young people. Visitors organized in groups represented 23% of the overall public, with a large majority of groups coming from schools and universities. The numbers denote an event centered on the transmission of knowledge and circulation of ideas.

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