Germane David Barnes of Studio Barnes

Germane David Barnes directs Studio Barnes, a Miami-based practice founded in 2016. According to his League Prize competition entry, the studio “explores the many rituals and narratives associated with Blackness in America,” examining “underrepresented contributions and legacies while creating new architectural possibilities that emerge within investigations of Black domesticity.” 

Recent projects include:

• A Spectrum of Blackness, an installation designed for MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America that reimagines vital elements of Black domestic spaces, such as the kitchen spice rack and the social rituals of the front porch.
• Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown, an installation of chairs fabricated with materials intended to mimic those used to construct shotgun houses in South Florida. The crowns of the back support “are inspired by the crowns donned by Black people across the diaspora… From Sunday Service hats to… the legendary afro-pick,” Barnes wrote in his competition portfolio.
• Delray Beach Pop-Up Porch, a converted shipping container whose motor-operated panels open to provide shared community space. The project references the significant historic and contemporary role the front porch plays in African American culture.

Barnes holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MArch from Woodbury University. He is an assistant professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture, where he is also director of the Community Housing & Identity Lab. 

Barnes’s work is included in the MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America. He is the 2021 winner of the Wheelwright Prize and will be a 2021–22 Rome Prize Fellow at The American Academy in Rome. 

Learn more:

• • “Reconstructions Portrait: Germane Barnes on Reframing Blackness” by David Hartt and Drew Zeiba, PIN–UP Magazine, 2021
  • “On the Front Porch, Black Life in Full View” by Audra D.S. Burch, The New York Times, 2018
  • “Giving Newtown a voice — and listening to it” by Carrie Seidman, The Florida Times Union/jacksonville.com, 2018