Germane Barnes is an American architect, designer[1] and an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Miami in Florida.[2] Barnes was a recipient of the 2021 Rome Prize in Architecture and the 2021 Wheelwright Prize.[3]
Barnes was born and raised in the West Side of Chicago, Illinois.[4][5] He studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received a Bachelor's of Science in Architecture in 2008.[6] After graduation, he worked in an architecture practice in Cape Town, South Africa on pro-bono projects for underprivileged communities.[6][7] Upon return to the United States, he attended Graduate School and received a Master of Architecture degree from Woodbury University in Burbank, California, where he was awarded the Graduate Thesis Prize.[8][9]
Continuing his professional experience, he became a designer in residence for the Opa Locka Community Development Corporation in Florida, providing design solutions for communities in need.[6][9][10] During the residency he created community events based around the abandoned buildings in the Triangle area of Opa Locka, and helped residents transform an abandoned lot into a community park.[5][11] He later established his own practice Studio Barnes, LLC in Miami.[12]
Barnes received a research grant from the Graham Foundation in 2018 for this project proposal 'Sacred Stoops: Typological Studies of Black Congregational Spaces'.[13] Within this scholarship, he was able to analyze five American cities (Atlanta, Washington D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Houston) with the focus on architectural typologies in relationship to African-American culture.[14] In February 2021, his work was part of the MoMA Exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.[15] It was MoMA’s first architecture exhibition highlighting the synthesis between architecture and African-American cultures and communities.[16] He was a founding member of the Black Reconstruction Collective, a group created by members of the MoMA show.[17] New York Times' Art and Design critic Michael Kimmelman wrote that the group's intention is to “reclaim the larger civic promise of architecture.”[18]
Barnes has been commissioned by Jack Guthman, chairman of the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, to create work for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial.[19]
Barnes was awarded the 2021 Wheelwright Prize by Harvard University Graduate School of Design.[3] The award is aimed to support early career creatives within their design research.[20] He was also a recipient of the 2021 Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome[21][22] and was awarded the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers.[23]
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