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 2021 recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture.

Barnes was born and raised in the West Side of Chicago, Illinois.^[3][4] He studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he received a Bachelor's of Science in Architecture in 2008.^[5] After graduation, he worked in an architecture practice in Cape Town, South Africa on pro-bono projects for underprivileged communities.^[5][6] 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.^[7][8]

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.^[5][8][9] 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.^[4][10] He later established his own practice Studio Barnes, LLC in Miami.^[11]

Barnes received a research grant from the Graham Foundation in 2018 for this project proposal 'Sacred Stoops: Typological Studies of Black Congregational Spaces'.^[12] 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.^[13] In February 2021, his work was part of the MoMA Exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.^[14] It was MoMA’s first architecture exhibition highlighting the synthesis between architecture and African-American cultures and communities.^[15] He was a founding member of the Black Reconstruction Collective, a group created by members of the MoMA show.^[16] New York Times' Art and Design critic Michael Kimmelman wrote that the group's intention is to “reclaim the larger civic promise of architecture.”^[17]

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.^[18]

Barnes was awarded the 2021 Wheelwright Prize by Harvard University Graduate School of Design.^[19] 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]