Meet architect David Adjaye, one of Fast Company's 2009 Master's of Design; who is creating the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African-American History and Culture, expected to be the last building built on the National Mall.

For his public buildings, Adjaye goes to the opposite extreme, creating edifices that are transparent, open-faced, and accessible. He draws on the markets and streets of his native continent, where the line between shop floor and sidewalk is routinely ignored and interiors spill into the bustling outdoors. One of the best expressions of this philosophy is the Idea Store in Poplar, London (pictured left).

Hidden by a dark colored front and facades, is an interior built on timber floors, surrounded by white walls. As well as an exterior comprised of a garden and garage all viewable through a back wall made from a two floor glass window. In perfect contrast to the view from the street.

The dining pavilion in the McGregor House (named after its occupant, actor Ewan McGregor), strengthens the connection between home and garden. Conceived as an over-scale porch, it builds on Adjaye's desire to create light-filled and airy spaces.

Built in 1999 for a close friend and frequent collaborator, Chris Ofili. David Adjaye again uses his residential trademark in taking a home lacking curb-appeal and transforms into something Adjaye himself describes as "very introverted, even secret".

Built in 2004 in Clerkenwel, London; the house is a steel and glass envelope standing inside the shell of the earlier building,

All the windows in the house have been reglazed with a translucent glass so they admit light without providing a view.

The intensity of light depends on the distance from the ground and the orientation of the windows.

In the yet-to-be built museum, visitors will be guided through a series of passageways that feel alternately confining and free. In one hall, numerous wooden columns hanging from the ceiling create an ominous pressure, before you reach the heart of the building: a full-height atrium with a corona that radiates light into its core.

Read more about David Adjaye.
Or browse pages devoted to other 2009 Masters of Design.