Emanuel Admassu (’12 MSAAD, ’13 AAR) is an assistant professor at GSAPP and a founding partner, with Jen Wood, of AD—WO, an art, architecture, and urban design practice based in New York. As a practicing architect, urbanist, and educator, Admassu’s work explores the intersections of spatial justice and urbanism, with a special focus on the African continent and the African diaspora. Prior to joining GSAPP, Admassu taught at RISD and Harvard GSD. He is also one of the founding board members of the Black Reconstruction Collective.
Employing an array of methodological frameworks, Admassu’s work traces global networks, including historical ones, of how people, resources, and culture circulate, and how they materialize in emergent aesthetic practices and urban systems. His recent book, a co-edited anthology of interviews, essays, and artworks, titled Where Is Africa (with Anita N. Bateman; CARA, 2024), is the product of a multi-year, multidisciplinary research on the histories and possible futures of African art and design.
Through AD—WO, Admassu weaves threads between formal expression and material research. AD—WO has ongoing and completed projects in Ethiopia, Tanzania, United States, Germany, and Italy. AD—WO’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (2026), 19th and 18th Venice Architecture Biennale (2025, 2023), Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023), Art Omi (2023), Harvard Graduate School of Design (2023), Museum of Modern Art (2021), and Architekturmuseum der TU München (2018). They have designed numerous exhibitions, including Dear Mazie at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, SIGHTLINES on Peace, Power & Prestige: Metal Arts in Africa at the Bard Graduate Center, Powers of the Unseen at Express Newark, and Tom Lloyd the Studio Museum in Harlem.
AD—WO’s works have been acquired for the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. They have received numerous awards and recognitions including the MacDowell Fellowship, the United States Artists (USA) Fellowship in Architecture & Design, J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize, The Architectural League’s Emerging Voices award, the Rice Design Alliances Spotlight Award, and the Pinpoint Award from African Futures Institute (AFI).
