AD–WO

AD—WO is an art and architecture practice directed by Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood.

We investigate the methods of spatial valuation that undergird the disciplines of architecture and urban design: how these systems of measurement are entangled with discursive and material regimes of racialization, ecological degradation, and coloniality. Our work unsettles the conventions of architecture by developing spatial schemes that are open and generous. We experiment with tactics of opacity, occlusion, and abstraction; paying special attention to nonwestern concepts and sites. The aim is to search for modes of representation that are illegible to the ethnographic gaze.

Rooted in Black studies, decoloniality, and conceptual art, AD—WO works against hegemonic epistemologies of classification and bordering. Our work often deals with aesthetic practices that offer expansive definitions of freedom: reframing intergenerational and cross-cultural forms of communality; beyond nation-states, political regimes, and institutional frameworks. We aim to produce work that raises collective consciousness around the material and immaterial forces shaping the built environment—specifically, in spaces occupied by racialized people. We articulate how architecture and art are implicated in ongoing struggles. This move away from the perceived innocence of art and architecture allows for alternative trajectories—ways of thinking and being in the world—that value and amplify liberatory practices.

AD—WO has received numerous awards including United States Artists (USA) Fellowship in Architecture & Design, J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize (Exhibit Columbus), The Architectural League’s Emerging Voices award, and the Pinpoint Award from African Futures Institute (AFI). AD—WO's work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia (2023), Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023), Art Omi (2023), Harvard Graduate School of Design (2023), Museum of Modern Art (2021), Architekturmuseum der TU München (2018), and the Studio Museum in Harlem (2017). Works by AD—WO are included in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Jen Wood (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia)
Is a founding principal of AD—WO and a licensed Architect in the state of New York. She has extensive experience working for leading architecture practices in Melbourne and New York. Wood received her Bachelor and Master of Architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and a Master in Advanced Architectural Design at Columbia University.

Emanuel Admassu (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Is founding principal of AD—WO and assistant professor at Columbia University GSAPP. His work addresses spatial justice and African urbanism. Admassu completed his Bachelor of Architecture at Southern Polytechnic State University, followed by a Master of Advanced Architectural Design and Advanced Architectural Research at Columbia University.