Burkinabe architect Diebedo Francis Kere during an interview in his office in Berlin, after receiving the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize. A native of Gando, Burkina Faso, he is the first African to win the prestigious prize, which has been awarded annually since 1979. ( Odd Andersen / AFP)
- Francis Kéré is a 56-year-old internationally renowned architect known for sustainable construction.
- He has become the first African and black person to receive the highest international honor for architecture.
- By conceptualizing buildings that are an act of social transformation, Kéré shows the potential of architecture to deliver a better future.
Diébédo Francis Kéré has become the first African and the first black person to receive architecture’s highest international honor, the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Kéré was born in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and developed his architecture practice designing schools and medical facilities, built largely by local communities with minimal resources and a meticulous selection of affordable and sustainable materials. It was this approach that led to her architecture studio receiving worldwide recognition.
We asked African architect and architecture researcher Paulo Moreia to tell us more about Kéré and his victory.
An introduction to Francis Kéré
Francis Kéré is a 56-year-old internationally renowned architect. He was born in Gando, a small town in Burkina Faso. He turned his destiny around through education, becoming one of the most representative figures of the African diaspora.
As a child, Francis had to leave his family to attend school in the nearest town. Driven by his optimism and the realization that only education could make a difference in his home country, Kéré moved to Berlin on a carpentry scholarship to study architecture. Even before finishing his studies, he designed a primary school in Gando.
In Germany, he founded an association to raise funds to build the school, translated as ‘Bricks for Gando’, later renamed the Kéré Foundation.
What type of architecture is he known for?
The Gando school is a model of sustainable building. Its features include allowing cooling air to pass through and around the building. Another is its innovative use of widely available local materials and unskilled labor.
It has become an example of the power of architecture to uplift and inspire.
The architect Francis Kéré shows German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier around the site of the future Goethe-Institut Dakar. (Photo by Bernd von Jutrczenka/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The first school built with this model, in Gando in 2001, encouraged the implementation of other projects: another school, then a library. These buildings, in turn, have attracted other buildings around them, and even neighboring villages have built their schools following Gando’s cooperative approach.
When architecture has such an impact on the context in which it operates, it can only be described as a powerful type of architecture. The impact spread to the entire nation. Less than 15 years after building his first school, Kéré was invited to design Burkina Faso’s national Parliament. It also spread beyond the country’s borders, across the continent and beyond. In Africa, there have been projects in Benin, Kenya, Mali and Mozambique. Globally there have been projects in Europe, America and Asia. The Kéré school inspired my work as an architect in Angola.
What is the Pritzker Prize?
It is architecture’s highest honor. It is awarded each year to architects whose work has achieved excellence. This year it is in its 45th edition.
Historically, the award honored designers of iconic buildings, but this seems to have changed in recent years. In 2021, the French duo Lacaton & Vassal was recognized for their advocacy for social justice and sustainability. In 2016 the Chilean Alejandro Aravena won the prize for his design of various social housing projects, and in 2014 it was awarded to the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. In addition to creating architecture, Shigeru Ban also volunteers to help in disasters.
Why does Kéré’s victory matter?
In these troubled times, Kéré’s work is a wonderful example of architecture’s potential to deliver a better future and catalyze progress on a local scale. His projects show how the role of the architect is not only to design walls, doors, windows and roofs, but that he does everything with great quality, elegance, rigor and beauty. His work shows a strong concern for climate and budget and a willingness to involve local communities in the design and construction of the buildings themselves.
The art installation Francis Kéré, Sarbalé ke is seen during Weekend 1, Day 1 of the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 12, 2019 in Indio, California. (Photo by Natt Lim/Getty Images for Coachella)
Kéré’s work suggests that only once buildings are inhabited can we know if their architecture really suits them. For example, a metal roof that shades the brutal sun and protects the walls from the rain could become an unexpected playground for children, who like to climb on roofs like trees.
His sensibility for using local resources and adapting buildings to their environment has inspired many other architects.
How could Kéré’s work make the world a better place?
Kéré’s work resonates on a global scale. His buildings are acts of social transformation. Beyond any architectural discourse, they create the conditions to cultivate civic responsibility and promote self-empowerment.
Serpentine Summer Pavilion 2017 designed by Francis Kere. (Photo by: JamesÊNewton/View Pictures/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Once again, recalling the beginnings of his career, which laid the foundations for his approach to architecture, Kéré’s decision to repay the support for his childhood studies with a school building was not accidental. He knew that, as the first public institution, the school would allow the population to begin to acquire a proper civic voice, ultimately becoming participants in the fate of his town and country rather than simply being affected by it.
If this vision were applied elsewhere, the world would definitely be better.
