It’s an old accusation, but not incorrect: Most of the world’s major cultural prizes do not reflect their real diversity, but rather their economic and political power relations. This also applies to the most important architecture prize, the American Pritzker Prize, which went to an African from Chicago for the first time this year – and a little to Berlin as well. This is where Diébédo Francis Kéré lives, who has the citizenships of Burkina Faso, where he was born in 1965, and Germany, where he has lived since 1985.
After an apprenticeship as a master builder in Burkina Faso, the then barely 20-year-old was able to go to Germany to study via the Carl Duisberg Society, completed his carpentry training here and began studying at the Berlin Technical University in 1995. Even where research and planning has been a firmly anchored topic in the countries of the Global South since the 1970s, the enterprising and discussion-loving Kéré received a lot of attention, even before he received his diploma in 2001 for planning and building a school in Gando, his hometown, the Aga Khan Prize for Architecture. In 2009 the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture and many other awards, teaching positions, books and exhibitions followed. And then he also fought to have the local architecture of his region of origin inscribed on the World Heritage List, in order to also honor the view of the agricultural traditions of Africa.
Architecture of modesty
Because that is Kéré’s speciality: conveying an architectural attitude that uses local and historical roots for today: clear constructions that can also be worked on by local people, but at the same time challenge their further training. Buildings made of concrete and steel, of course, but mostly made of wood, straw and clay. It is hardly a coincidence that many of his works are schools or the opera village Africa by director Christoph Schlingensief. It is not the buildings that are memorable for the shapes, but the attitude that can be seen behind the designs.
Kéré is a man who loves to see beyond the boundaries of his field, who is filled with a missionary spirit, who knows that good architecture comes from the team, from consideration for what is available, from humility. But Kéré also seriously questions our cultural perspectives: why do we actually call him an African architect just because he comes from Africa and made his career with buildings constructed there? Isn’t Kéré the ideal candidate for a real world architecture? An architect for the future, without a doubt.