André J. Clarke is a licensed architect in the United States and the Founder and Creative Director of MAKA. Born and raised in Jamaica, he brings more than 20 years of experience in architecture and design, with work spanning North America, the Caribbean and South America.
His journey began at the University of Technology, Jamaica, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture before working in his home country. He then spent approximately two and a half years working across the Eastern Caribbean, including two years based in Barbados and travel throughout the region. These early experiences included FORM Architects in Jamaica and SRM Architects in Barbados.
A scholarship took him to the United States to pursue a Master of Architecture at Florida A&M University. After completing his master’s degree, he continued his studies through an urban design fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University. His master’s research into music and architecture remains a thread in his interest in rhythm, movement and spatial experience.
Following the fellowship, André stayed in Pittsburgh, working for several years at Desmone Architects before joining Stantec. At Stantec, his work included large-scale manufacturing facilities and other complex projects. Across nearly 12 years in the United States, he gained experience in both smaller practices and large firms and obtained his architectural licensure.
At Desmone Architects, André served as Project Architect for The Industrialist Hotel, the transformation of Pittsburgh’s historic 1902 Arrott Building into a contemporary 124-room hotel. Working within a wider project team, he helped carry the rehabilitation through design and construction, coordinating the day-to-day architectural work with the client, contractor and consultants. The project sharpened his understanding of how historic character, existing conditions and contemporary hospitality needs can be brought together through careful design and attention to detail.
At Stantec, Redeemer became one of the defining projects of André’s career: Hanwha Qcells’ solar manufacturing complex in Cartersville, Georgia. At approximately two million square feet, it represents a major undertaking in rebuilding the United States’ domestic solar supply chain. The complex was designed to unite ingot, wafer, cell and finished-panel production under one roof—the first and only U.S. factory of its kind, according to Qcells. ECG Location Georgia also identifies Qcells as the Western Hemisphere’s only fully integrated solar panel manufacturer. Its significance lies in bringing an entire manufacturing sequence, its specialized systems and its supporting infrastructure together at an exceptional industrial scale.
André served as Design Manager for the entire facility and as one of its lead Project Architects, working across the architectural, engineering and operational demands of this complex undertaking. Alongside that facility-wide leadership, he personally developed the architectural design of the main office as its Project Architect and Project Designer, giving the industrial campus a considered corporate entrance and workplace identity. These complementary responsibilities brought together the coordination of a major manufacturing facility and the focused architectural authorship of its main office within the wider collaborative project undertaken at Stantec.
Today, André lives in Lima and, following his time at Stantec, leads his own practice through MAKA in South America. He brings that journey into an approach rooted in research, culture and context, exploring how light, movement and the rhythms of everyday life shape the places people inhabit.
