Lesley Lokko

Ghanaian architect and writer · Ghana · On the map · Architects · Born 1964 · age 62

Lesley Naa Norle Lokko is a Ghanaian-Scottish academic, and novelist. From 2019 to 2020, she was a professor and served as dean of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York, in addition to holding teaching and other positions in Johannesburg, London, Accra and Edinburgh.

Lesley Lokko is read about 20 times a day, in 22 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 30 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 141 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

2024BBC 100 WomenAwardRoyal Gold MedalAward2023“It is an opportunity to talk to the rest of the world about Africa, and also to talk to Africa from here (Venice).”In their words14 May 2023Patricia Leigh Brown, Setting the Stage for Africa at the Venice Architecture Biennale, The New York TimesRead the whole statement

“When you are African, you speak to a world that has an existing view of who and what you are. You walk with this kind of label.”In their words14 May 2023Patricia Leigh Brown, Setting the Stage for Africa at the Venice Architecture Biennale, The New York TimesRead the whole statement

“I’ve always thought of ‘race’ as a powerfully creative category of exploration and expression.”In their words14 May 2023Patricia Leigh Brown, Setting the Stage for Africa at the Venice Architecture Biennale, The New York TimesRead the whole statement

“Change is the one thing that everybody hollers for and longs for, but when it actually arrives, most people don't want it. It's a complex thing.”In their words6 April 2023Nadia Neophytou, Lesley Lokko Speaks About a More African Architecture Biennale, okayafricaRead the whole statement

“I think all cultural output is a form of narrative. Somebody once said that culture is the sum total of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.”In their wordsMaria-Cristina Florian, The 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale as a Healing Experience: In Conversation with Curator Lesley Lokko, ArchRead the whole statement

“I don't expect this exhibition to teach anybody anything, I don't think it's a didactic exhibition. That's not to say that people won't learn something from it.”In their wordsMaria-Cristina Florian, The 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale as a Healing Experience: In Conversation with Curator Lesley Lokko, ArchRead the whole statement

1964Born

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In their own words 4

Lesley Lokko

4 statements, newest first

There’s something about the training of an architect that’s particularly suited to our time: it’s about bringing disparate pieces of information together in a framework.
Debika Ray, Curator Lesley Lokko on the Venice Architecture Biennale: ‘It’s about a world that’s yet to come’, Financial Times, May 18,, Own words
Architects have the power to change the culture of how we build and how we think about resources.
Debika Ray, Curator Lesley Lokko on the Venice Architecture Biennale: ‘It’s about a world that’s yet to come’, Financial Times, May 18,, Own words
No job is worth one’s life.
Debika Ray, Curator Lesley Lokko on the Venice Architecture Biennale: ‘It’s about a world that’s yet to come’, Financial Times, May 18,, Own words