Adjaye Associates was one of five practices invited to participate in Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation. The firm presented Asem-pa (‘good news’ in the Ghanaian dialect Twi) as an affordable housing solution for the Lower 9th Ward area of New Orleans, still devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005., The brief focused on developing an easily replicated yet innovative design.

Keeping with Make It Right’s priority to work in cooperation with former residents of the Lower 9th Ward, the concept began with homeowners. Preserving the local identity, cultural influences and pre-Katrina architecture featured high on the agenda. Adjaye Associates delivered a solution, offering aesthetic distinctiveness that harmoniously unified the Lower 9th Ward’s history whilst mindful of environmental and safety concerns.