Diébédo Francis Kéré,
architect, educator and social activist, has been selected as the 2022 Laureate
of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, announced Tom Pritzker, Chairman of The
Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the award that is regarded internationally as
architecture’s highest honor.
“I am hoping to change the paradigm, push people to dream and undergo risk. It
is not because you are rich that you should waste material. It is not because
you are poor that you should not try to create quality,” says Kéré. “Everyone
deserves quality, everyone deserves luxury, and everyone deserves comfort. We
are interlinked and concerns in climate, democracy and scarcity are concerns for
us all.”
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Francis Kéré Portrait
Photo by Lars Borges |
Born in Gando, Burkina Faso and based
in Berlin, Germany, the architect known as Francis Kéré empowers and transforms
communities through the process of architecture. Through his commitment to
social justice and engagement, and intelligent use of local materials to connect
and respond to the natural climate, he works in marginalized countries laden
with constraints and adversity, where architecture and infrastructure are
absent. Building contemporary school institutions, health facilities,
professional housing, civic buildings and public spaces, oftentimes in lands
where resources are fragile and fellowship is vital, the expression of his works
exceeds the value of a building itself.
Gando Primary School
“Francis Kéré is pioneering architecture - sustainable to the earth and its
inhabitants – in lands of extreme scarcity. He is equally architect and servant,
improving upon the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of
the world that is at times forgotten,” comments Pritzker. “Through buildings
that demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness and invention, and by the integrity
of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize.”
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Gando Primary School, Photo by Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk
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Gando Primary School (2001, Gando,
Burkina Faso) established the foundation for Kéré’s ideology– building a
wellspring with and for a community to fulfill an essential need and redeem
social inequities. His response required a dual solution – a physical and
contemporary design for a facility that could combat extreme heat and poor
lighting conditions with limited resources, and a social resoluteness to
overcome incertitude from within the community. He fundraised internationally,
while creating invariable opportunities for local citizens, from conception to
vocational craftsmanship training. Indigenous clay was fortified with cement to
form bricks with bioclimatic thermal mass, retaining cooler air inside while
allowing heat to escape through a brick ceiling and wide, overhanging, elevated
roof, resulting in ventilation without the mechanical intervention of air
conditioning. The success of this project increased the school’s student body
from 120 to 700 students, and catalyzed Teachers’ Housing (2004, Gando, Burkina
Faso), an Extension (2008, Gando, Burkina Faso) and Library (2019, Gando,
Burkina Faso).
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The 2022 Jury Citation states, in
part, “He knows, from within, that architecture is not about the object but the
objective; not the product, but the process. Francis Kéré’s entire body of work
shows us the power of materiality rooted in place. His buildings, for and with
communities, are directly of those communities – in their making, their
materials, their programs and their unique characters.”
Burkina Institute of Technology
The impact of his work in primary and secondary schools catalyzed the inception
of many institutions, each demonstrating sensitivity to bioclimatic environments
and sustainability distinctive to locality, and impacting many generations.
Startup Lions Campus (2021, Turkana, Kenya), an information and communication
technologies campus, uses local quarry stone and stacked towers for passive
cooling to minimize the air conditioning required to protect technology
equipment. Burkina Institute of Technology (Phase I, 2020, Koudougou, Burkina
Faso) is composed of cooling clay walls that were cast in-situ to accelerate the
building process. Overhanging eucalyptus, regarded as inefficient due to its
minimal shading abilities yet depletion of nutrients from the soil, were
repurposed to line the angled corrugated metal roofs, which protect the building
during the country’s brief rainy reason, and rainwater is collected underground
to irrigate mango plantations on the premises.
Gando Primary School Library
The national confidence and embrace of Kéré has prompted one of the architect’s
most pivotal and ambitious projects, the National Assembly of Burkina Faso
(Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), which was commissioned, although remains unbuilt
amidst present uncertain times. After the Burkinabč uprising in 2014 destroyed
the former structure, the architect designed a stepped and lattice pyramidal
building, housing a 127-person assembly hall on the interior, while encouraging
informal congregation on the exterior. Enabling new views, physically and
metaphorically, this is one piece to a greater master plan, envisioned to
include indigenous flora, exhibition spaces, courtyards, and a monument to those
who lost their lives in protest of the old regime.
A poetic expression of light is consistent throughout Kéré’s works. Rays of sun
filter into buildings, courtyards and intermediary spaces, overcoming harsh
midday conditions to offer places of serenity or gathering. The concrete roof of
Gando Primary School Library was poured around a grid of traditional clay pots,
that once extracted, left openings allowing heat to escape while circular beams
of natural light could linger and illuminate the interiors. A facade constructed
of eucalyptus wood surrounds the elliptical building, creating flexible outdoor
spaces that emit light vertically. Benga Riverside School (2018, Tete,
Mozambique) features walls patterned with small recurring voids, allowing light
and transparency to evoke feelings of trust from its students. The walls of
Centre for Health and Social Welfare (2014, Laongo, Burkina Faso) are adorned
with a pattern of framed windows at varying heights to offer picturesque views
of the landscape for everyone, from a standing doctor to a sitting visitor to a
lying patient.
The Citation continues, “In a world in crisis, amidst changing values and
generations, he reminds us of what has been, and will undoubtably continue to be
a cornerstone of architectural practice: a sense of community and narrative
quality, which he himself is so able to recount with compassion and pride. In
this he provides a narrative in which architecture can become a source of
continued and lasting happiness and joy.”
Sarbalé Ke
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Sarbalé Ke, Foto (c) Francis Kéré
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Kéré’s designs are laced with symbolism and his works outside of Africa are
influenced by his upbringing and experiences in Gando. The West African
tradition of communing under a sacred tree to exchange ideas, narrate stories,
celebrate and assemble, is recurrent throughout. Sarbalé Ke at Coachella Valley
Music and Arts Festival (2019, California, United States) translates to “House
of Celebration” in his native Bissa language, and references the shape of the
hollowing baobab tree, revered in his homeland for its medicinal properties. The
Serpentine Pavilion (2017, London, United Kingdom) also takes its central shape
from the form of a tree and its disconnected yet curved walls are formed by
triangular indigo modules, identifying with a color representing strength in his
culture and more personally, a blue boubou garment worn by the architect as a
child. The detached roof resonates with that of his buildings in Africa, but
inside the pavilion, rainwater funnels into the center of the structure,
highlighting water scarcity that is experienced worldwide. The Benin National
Assembly (Porto-Novo, Republic of Benin), currently under construction and
situated on a public park, is inspired by the palaver tree. While parliament
convenes on the inside, citizens may also assemble under the vast shade at the
base of the building.
Many of Kéré’s built works are located in Africa, in countries including the
Republic of Benin, Burkino Faso, Mali, Togo, Kenya, Mozambique, Togo, and Sudan.
Pavilions and installations and have been created in Denmark, Germany, Italy,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Significant works also
include Xylem at Tippet Rise Art Centre (2019, Montana, United States), Léo
Doctors’ Housing (2019, Léo, Burkina Faso), Lycée Schorge Secondary School
(2016, Koudougou, Burkina Faso), the National Park of Mali (2010, Bamako, Mali)
and Opera Village (Phase I, 2010, Laongo, Burkina Faso).
Kéré established Kéré Foundation in 1998 to serve the inhabitants of Gando
through the development of projects, partnerships and fundraising; and Kéré
Architecture in 2005 in Berlin, Germany. Kéré is the 51st Laureate of the
Pritzker Architecture Prize, and is a dual citizen of Burkina Faso and Germany.
Release The Hyatt Foundation