J. Yolande Daniels facts for kids

J. Yolande Daniels (born 1962) is an American architect, designer, and teacher. She is a co-founder of studioSUMO, an architecture company. This company designs buildings that show how culture and society affect our surroundings.

Her School Days

Yolande Daniels studied architecture at the City College of New York. She then earned her master's degree from Columbia University. After her studies, she received two special fellowships from the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1996. These fellowships helped her explore her ideas further.

Designing with a Purpose

Yolande Daniels wanted her work to speak about important social topics. She focused on how architecture can show ideas about gender, race, and power. She explored how these social structures shape the buildings around us.

StudioSUMO and Key Projects

In 1997, Daniels co-founded studioSUMO with Sunil Bald. Together, they have designed many interesting projects. One notable project is the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA). This museum is located in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York, and was completed in 2007. They also designed the Mizuta Museum at Josai University in Sakado, Japan, in 2012. As of 2021, studioSUMO has offices in both New York and Los Angeles.

Teaching Architecture

Yolande Daniels has also taught architecture at several universities. She taught at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also spent ten years teaching at Columbia University. Currently, she is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. There, she teaches students about architectural design.

Exploring Ideas Through Art

Daniels created an art installation called FEMMEpissoire in 1996. This design explored ideas about public spaces and how they are designed for different people. It made people think about how buildings can reflect or challenge social norms.

Another project, Intimate Landscape of the Shotgun House, was in Dallas, Texas. Here, Daniels explored the history of the Shotgun House. These were common homes in the US South, often for enslaved people. She used quotes from old stories to show how the landscape and homes were connected to the history of slavery. This project highlighted how architecture can tell powerful stories about the past.

Mapping History and Migration

Daniels also used architecture to explore black history. Her project De Facto/de Jure: by Custom/by Law looked at how laws and customs affected where people lived. It focused on the Great Migration of the 20th century. This was when many African Americans moved from the South to other parts of the US. She mapped this movement along the Southern Crescent Railway Line.

For the reception area at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Daniels created a 3D map. This map showed the migration of the African diaspora (people of African descent spread around the world). She also wrote essays about "advocacy architecture." These writings explored how buildings and spaces relate to social issues like gender, race, and class. Some of her published essays include Crime and Ornament and Black bodies, black space: A-waiting spectacle.

Continuing Her Work

Before joining the University of Southern California in 2019, she was a visiting professor at MIT and Yale University. She focused on how different cultures create different spaces. She also taught at City College of New York and the University of Michigan. She held important roles at Howard University and Parsons School of Constructed Environments.

Daniels is also part of the Black Reconstruction Collective. Her work, black city: The Los Angeles Edition, was shown at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in an exhibition called Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

Projects

• FEMMEpissoire (installation), Gramercy Park Hotel, New York City (1996)
• Intimate Landscape of the Shotgun House, Dallas, Texas (2000)
• Museum of African Art (interior space), Long Island City (2001)
• Museum of African Diaspora Art, Brooklyn (2006)
• Josai University School of Business Management, Sakado, Japan (2006)
• Mitan Housing, Miami (2007)
• Leaney Harlem Duplex, Harlem (2009)
• Mizuta Museum of Art, Sakado, Japan (2012)
• iHouse Dormitory, JIU University, Togane, Japan (2016)
• black city: The Los Angeles Edition, MoMA, (2021)

Awards and Honors

• The American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award, 2015
• Emerging Voices Award, 2010
• Design Vanguard Award, 2006-2007
• MacDowell Colony Fellowship, 2005-2006.
• Rome Prize in Architecture, 2003-2004
• Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow at the Whitney American Museum of Art, 1996-1998