Adam Robarts was born in London and raised in Uganda and Kenya before moving back to the UK to read architecture at Cambridge University. In 1993, he moved to China to teach architecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Two years later, Adam was awarded the state-level Friendship Award – the highest honor China gives to foreign experts. In 1997, Adam and his wife, Karyn, opened their architecture and design studio in Beijing and, in 2007, Adam was inducted as an honorary member of the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame, awarded to outstanding designers for their significant contribution to architecture and interior design. Adam and Karyn have four children who were born and raised in China. They currently live in Bali, Indonesia, with their youngest son.
In December 2018, during a family vacation in Canada, Adam was asked what he would choose to be if not an architect. He replied, without hesitation, “A hospice nurse.” Five years earlier, he’d had a profound experience accompanying his father through the final weeks of life before he died of cancer in Uganda. Adam could not have imagined then that nine months later he would begin to accompany his 19-year-old son Haydn through a similar battle.
Nineteen, is Adam’s first book. It is written in collaboration with Karen Malmqvist and Lou Aronica.