Black Architect

Architect Sekou Cooke uses personal narratives and interviews to examine the challenges that Black architects face in the United States and their vision for the future. Black Architect is a provocative and deeply personal investigation into the intersection of race, identity, and the built environment. Written by architect and educator Sekou Cooke, and author of Hip-Hop Architecture, this book blends memoir, cultural critique, and a series of candid conversations with leading Black practitioners to explore what it truly means to be a Black architect in America. Cooke's traces his journey from a childhood in Jamaica and an early fascination with architecture to Ivy League institutions and into a professional field shaped by Eurocentric ideals, confronting readers with an uncomfortable reality: architecture in the United States continues to be constructed-both literally and conceptually-through a predominantly white lens. But what happens when Blackness enters that space, not just as identity but as a mode of thinking, designing, and living? Through a compelling mix of personal narrative and interviews with some of today's most influential Black designers and thinkers, Black Architect charts the historical marginalisation of Black architects, the structural and cultural obstacles they face, and the alternative visions they bring to the discipline. The book offers both a critical reckoning with architecture's exclusionary past and a hopeful blueprint for a more inclusive future. AUTHOR: Sekou Cooke is a Jamaican-born architect based in Charlotte, NC, where runs his own firm Sekou Cooke Studio. He also serves as director of the Urban Design Program at the City College of New York and is the author of Hip-Hop Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2021). SELLING POINTS: . A provocative and personal investigation into the intersection of race, identity, and the built environment . A compelling mix of Sekou Cooke's personal narrative and interviews with some of today's most influential Black designers and thinkers . Charts the historical marginalisation of Black architects and the structural and cultural obstacles they face . Highlights the alternative visions Black architects and designers bring to their discipline 35 colour plates