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Ola-Dele Kuku (8 August 1963 – 11 October 2021) was a Nigerian architect and artist of Yoruba origin.^[1] He lived and worked between Nigeria and Belgium.^[1]

Ola-Dele Kuku studied at (SCI-Arc), the Southern California Institute of Architecture (1984 - 1986), in Los Angeles, California, U.S. and in Vico Morcote, Ticino, Switzerland (1986 - 1988).^[2] He also attended Architecture Intermundium in Milan, Italy(1988 - 1990), for advanced architecture studies, where he collaborated with Daniel Libeskind on the City Edge project (Berlin), and the Berlin Jewish Museum competition.^[3]

Kuku was captivated by the study of proportion and created structures to challenge common conception of living space and traditional architectural restraints.^[4]

At this immaterial production Kuku also having more works related to the subject such as "Opera Domestica" a series consisting of furniture wooden sculpture that condense the structures and functions of architectural space in the object space.^[5]

Ola-Dele Kuku has successfully participated in numerous events and international competitions such as:^[6]

• ’Grand Prize - Prime Minister’s Prize' Award - IFI Nagoya International Design Competition, Nagoya, Japan, 1995
• ’License of Honour' Tech-Art Prize Award - Vlaamse Ingenieurs kamer, Antwerp, Belgium, 1995
• Henry Van De Velde Prize - 'Prize of the Public Award' - VIZO at the Design Museum, Ghent, Belgium, 1997
• ‘Honourable Mention’ Award - Nagoya Do International Design Competition, Nagoya Japan, 1998
• ’Mention Spéciale pour la Créativité' - Biennale pour l'Art Contemporain Africain Dak'ART, Dakar Senegal 2000
• Lauréat - SPES Belgian Foundation Scholarship Award (for artistic creation), Brussels Belgium.

• Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy (dept of Architecture) –'Home for the Muses’ (curator: Prof Remo Dorigati) 1990 - solo
• Nagoya International Center, Nagoya, Japan – ‘Teatro Dell'Archivio’ (curator: Julia Chiu) 1995 - group·
• Lineart (International Art Fair 20th Century) . Ghent, Belgium – ‘Teatro Dell'Archivio’ (curator: Martine Boucher) 1996 – solo
• Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent, Belgium – ‘Circumstances as Consequence’ (curator Richard Foncke) 1997 - solo
• World Craft Council, Hannover, Germany (Artistry in Wood) – ‘Objects’ (curator : Inge Vranken)1997 - group
• Centre d’Art Contemporain Brussels, Belgium – ‘Detail’ (curator: Martine Boucher) 1998 - group
• Nagoya Centre, Nagoya, Japan – ‘New Neighbours’ (Similar Differences) 1999 - group
• Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden – World Crafts Council European Prize (Fossils & Icons) 1999 - group
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France – World Crafts Council European Prize (Fossils & Icons) 1999 - group
• Temporary & Contemporary TenT Brussels, Belgium – ‘Celestial Mechanics I – VIII’ (curator Philippe Braems)1999 solo
• International Biennial Design Festival, Sainte-Etienne, France – ‘Detail’ 2000 – group
• Narodni Techniké Museum, Prague, Czech Republic – ‘Similar Differences’ (curator: Martine Boucher) 2000 - group
• Teatro dal Verme Milano, Italy (Donation for Child Care Trust) – ‘Aftermath’ (curator : Victor Kanu) 2001 - solo
• Middelheim Museum Antwerp Belgium – ‘Experimental Experience’ (curator : Nij De Donker) 2004 - solo.
• Swish Art Fair Milan, Italy (Montenapoleone Art Shop) – ‘Objects & Drawings’ (curator : Vilma Redis) 2004 - group.
• Porsche Haus Milan, Italy – ‘Objects & Drawings’ (curator Victor Kanu) 2004 - solo.
• Torino Art Fair, Torino, Italy – ‘Living with the Fates I-XII’ (curator : Grazia Chiasa - Fondazion D’Ars) 2004 – group.
• Galleria Mares, Pavia, Italy – ‘Ola-Dele Kuku Architect’ (curator : Maria-Angela Callisti) 2004 - solo.
• Milan Art Fair 2005 - MIART off (Spazio CIN ) – ‘Ola-Dele Kuku Prototype’ (curator : Claudio Composti) 2005 - solo.
• Galleria Luisa delle Piane, Milan, Italy – ‘Selected works’ (curator : Luisa delle Piane) 2006 - solo.
• Musée d’Ixelles Brussels, Belgium - (Art et Histoire1906 à nos jours) ’Agenda Setting’ (curator: Martine Boucher) 2008.
• FESMAN III, Dakar, Senegal ‘The Dakar Initiative’ (documentary video on visual culture) 2010 - solo.
• Philippe Laeremans Gallery Brussels, Belgium - ‘Speaking in Vernacular’ (exhibition and book launch) 2012 - solo.
• Design museum Gent, Belgium - ‘Similar Difference’ Installation - (curator : Bernadette De Loose) 2012 - solo.
• 7th Flanders Design Triennial, Genk, Belgium - ‘Agenda Setting’ - (curator : Kurt Vanbelleghem) 2013 - group
• Nigerian Pavilion - 15th International Architecture Exhibition, 'Diminished Capacity' - (curator : Camilla Boemio)

Ola-Dele Kuku has lectured and offered seminars at several architecture academies.

• Politecnico di Milano – Faculty of Architecture, Milan, Italy
• Institut Supérieur d’Architecture La Cambre, Brussels, Belgium
• Technical University Delft - Dept. of Architecture, Delft, Holland
• University of Lagos – Dept. of Architecture, Lagos, Nigeria
• Berlage Institute, Amsterdam, Holland
• Akademie voor Bouwkunst, Arnhem, Holland
• Akademie voor Bouwkunst, Tilburg, Holland
• KU Leuven - Sint Lucas Architectuur, Brussels, Belgium
• KU Leuven - Sint Lucas Architectuur, Gent, Belgium

• Matteo Galiazzo, Ola-Dele Kuku Antwerpen : ABC2004, 2005. ISBN 9789077362365
• L’Arca n° 51 – ‘L’Utopia del Progetto’ by Mautizio Vitta, (Milan, Italy 1991).
• Arch and Life n° 69 – ‘Opera Domestica 1’ by Marc Gossé (Brussels, Belgium 1995).
• Noc n° 26 – ‘In the beginning’ by Julia Chiu (Nagoya, Japan 1996).
• L’Arca n° 112 – ‘Opera Domestica’ by Maurizio Vitta (Milan, Italy 1997).
• Kwintessens n° 1 – ‘Ola-Dele Kuku’ Profile by Christian Oosterlinck (Brussels, Belgium 1997).
• De Morgan – January ‘De betonnen bonker van Noah’ by Farida O’Seery (Brussels, Belgium 1997).
• Knack n° 47 – ‘Kasten als Kathedralen’ by Jean-Pierre Gabriel (Brussels, Belgium 1997).
• Knack n° 13 – ‘Dromen Van Een Kerkhof’ by Max Borka (Brussels, Belgium 1998).
• Trends n° 46 – ‘Leegte is de Drijfreer’ by Margot Vanderstraeten (Brussels, Belgium 1998).
• Revue Noir n° 30 – ‘Nigeria’ Ola-Dele Kuku Profile (Paris, France 1998).
• Feeling Wonen n° 09/0015 – ‘Sculpturen vol geheimen’ by Hilde Bouchez (Brussels, Belgium 1999).
• Revue Noir n° 31 – ‘Project de Ville’ Ola-Dele Kuku Profile ( Paris, France 1999).
• Vernissage n° 1/7 – ‘Ola-Dele Kuku’ by Mia Dekeersemaker (Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2000).
• Object n° 16 – ‘Diptych’ by Hans Fonck (Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2000).
• Passion Architecture n° 9 – ‘L’architecture au-delà frontières’ (Paris, France 2004).
• Trends n° 20 – ‘Het denkende design van Ola-Dele Kuku’ by Sérge Vanmaercke (Brussels, Belgium 2004).
• Trends n° 20 – ‘Le no nonsense d’un Yoruba à Bruxelles’ by Sérge Vanmaercke (Brussels, Belgium 2004).
• Luxos n° 5 – ‘I pezzi unici dell’architetto Ola-Dele Kuku’ by Alessia Franchini (Milan, Italy 2005).
• U Magazine n° 042 – ‘Ola-Dele Kuku’ U profile (Hong Kong, China 2006).
• Area Revue n° 16 – ‘Desseins de structures urbaines’ by Alexandre Mensah (Paris, France 2008).
• Nubian's Magazine n° 7 – ‘La dialectique de l’ordre et du chaos’ by Roger Ndéma Kingué (Brussels, Belgium 2010)
• Kwintessens Magazine n° 2 – ‘Ontwerpen voor Conflict en Chaos’ interview by Kurt Vanbelleghem (Brussels, Belgium 2011)
• ‘Speaking in Vernacular’ (Ola-Dele Kuku monograph), – Texts by Sara Weyns, F. Kehinde Oluyadi, Chika Unigwe, and Roger Ndéma Kingué (Brussels, Belgium, 2012)
• `The Saga Continues’ (Ola-Dele Kuku monograph), - Text by Sara Weyns (Antwerp, Belgium, 2013)
• `7th Flanders Design Triennial‘, (Conflict and Design) - ‘Agenda Setting’ (the running mean) - interview by Elien Haentjens (Genk, Belgium, 2013)
• `7th Flanders Design Triennial‘, (Conflict and Design) - ‘Conflict Culture’ - Text by Ola-Dele Kuku (Genk, Belgium, 2013)

• Contemporary African Art
• List of Nigerian architects

• "Site official Ola-Dele Kuku".
• "undo.net".
• "'A Continuous State of Time' Workshop at the Nigerian Pavilion, la Biennale di Venezia 2016".
• "'Diminished Capacity' Nigerian Pavilion, The 15th International Architecture Exhibition online, Google Cultural Institute".