Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, he lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and LebanonShaw, William (2 April 2006), "Man With a Plan", The New York Times Magazine. before moving to Britain at the age of nine. Upon graduating with a BA degree in Architecture from London South Bank University in 1990, he won the RIBA Bronze Medal for the best undergraduate design project in the UK. In 1993 he graduated from his master's programme at the Royal College of Art.
