Sekou Cooke, Director of UNC Charlotte’s Master of Urban Design program
Jamaican born, Cooke comes to UNC Charlotte from Syracuse, New York, where he was an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at Syracuse University. Through his professional practice, sekou cooke STUDIO, he brings thoughtful processes and rigorous experimentation to a vast array of project types – from public, non-profit, and residential works in New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina, to mixed-use projects and tenant improvements in California, to speculative developments locally and internationally.
Cooke’s current research centers on the emergent field of Hip-Hop Architecture, a theoretical movement reflecting the core tenets of hip-hop culture with the power to create meaningful impact on the built environment and give voice to the marginalized and underrepresented within design practice. This work has been widely disseminated through his writings, lectures, and symposia and is the subject of his monograph, Hip-Hop Architecture. Cooke’s work is also featured in the landmark exhibition, Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, recently on view at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
The School of Architecture's 50th Anniversary Lecture Series celebrates the vision of the SoA during its 50-year history and into the future. Throughout the fall and spring semesters, renowned practitioners and scholars will explore historical developments in architecture since the School’s inception and examine current and future trends in the discipline as we consider the School's place in a continuously changing profession.
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