House Proud
Published by the Royal Institute of British Architects | September 2026
BLACK INTERIORS AND ARCHITECTURE ACROSS CONTINENTS AND CENTURIES
Every home tells a story. House Proud is a richly illustrated celebration of how Black homes tell one of humanity's most enduring and sophisticated design stories, a story of life rooted in nature, community, joy and the sacred.
Early Reviews
Afua Hirsch - British writer and broadcaster
“Every word of this book is a balm - I have been waiting my whole life for this combination of glorious beauty, cultural recognition and expansive knowledge.”
Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize winner
“Fascinating, groundbreaking and utterly gorgeous. I love this book.”
Misan Harriman - Photographer, Social activist, Oscar-nominated filmmaker
“Kemide Lawson has created something much more than a book; this is the story of Africa and its diasporic cultural memory through the house. Our homes, at times, have been our only safe space; the multiplicity of love, resistance, family and cultural memory lives within the walls of generational lodging, celebrated and documented in this monument of a book”
Kate Watson-Smyth, Interiors author and journalist
“A real page-turner of an interiors book that is both important and overdue. I loved it.”
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Inside The Book
HERE ARE THE PILLARS THAT HOLD ANCESTRAL INTELLIGENCE UP, AS FOUND IN COTTAGE NOIR
Chapter 1
Ancestral Intelligence
The compounds, sacred spaces and royal palaces of Africa and the diaspora. The building blocks of design wisdom passed down through generations, and the guiding principles for how to live today.
The monumental domes inside the mid-19th-century Kafin Madaki Palace, in Northern Nigeria. Domes are particularly difficult to execute with earth architecture, making the size of these domes particularly impressive.
Jordi Zaragozà Anglès
Chapter 2
Homes of Black royalty, aristocrats and self-made millionaires from Haiti to Nigeria. Spectacular, purposeful and built as statements of Black pride and achievement.
Afro Aristo
The elegant interior of Villa Miramar, showcasing the Gingerbread style’s signature ornate woodwork, high ceilings and patterned tile floors
Wikimedia / Lea-Kim
Chapter 3
The homes shaped by slavery, colonialism, migration and resistance. Spaces that reveal the extraordinary ingenuity of people who turned home into a place of dignity and identity against the odds.
Radical Shelters
The West Indian Front Room installation at the Museum of the Home, London, in 2005, curated by Michael McMillan. One of the museum’s most popular installations to date, it has now become a permanent exhibition, titled A Front Room in the 1970s.
Courtesy of the Museum of the Home, photo credit Jaron James
Chapter 4
Contemporary homes, including Cottage Noir, of Black people living with intention today. A look at what it means to celebrate your heritage, your ancestral intelligence, in your own home today.
Future Ancestors
Enjoying a book and quiet contemplation in the library of Kenneth Montague's home in Toronto, Canada, overlooked by this definitive piece by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Doublespace Photography
