The architect from Burkina Faso, the first of his continent, wins. “Able to improve lives”
To understand the philosophy behind the work of Diébédo Francis Kéré, winner of the Pritzker 2022 and the first African designer to receive what is considered the Nobel Prize in architecture, just look at the Gando Primary School, built in 2001 in Gando, the same village ( 2,500 inhabitants) where Kéré was born on April 10, 1965 in Burkina Faso (one of the poorest countries in the world with 45% of the population below the poverty line and an illiteracy rate of over 80%). A building created to satisfy an essential need (education) and to redeem social inequalities.
To build it, architect-activist Kéré personally raised funds internationally, while at the same time creating job opportunities for his fellow citizens and anticipating the need for ever more sustainable architecture and self-sufficient: a brick ceiling made with local clay retains fresh air, a large overhanging and elevated roof ensures ventilation without air conditioning).
The success of this project has taken the school’s student body from 120 to 700 students, transforming Francis Kéré, as Tom Pritzker explained, chairman of the Hyatt Foundation which supports the prestigious Award, «in an architecture pioneer capable of improving lives and the experiences of countless citizens in a sometimes forgotten region of the world, through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, audacity and invention, and with the integrity of its architecture and deeds ».
The son of a village chief, he is sent to school to learn how to read and translate his father’s letters. Due to the absence of a school in Gando, his native village, he leaves his family at the age of 7 and goes to live in the capital, Ouagadougou, where educational opportunities are greater for a boy (like many others in Africa) forced to leave their home in search of social redemption. After completing his studies, he adapts to humble jobs like a carpenter. In 1985 a new even more radical uprooting in Berlin: a carpentry scholarship from the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft. During the day Kéré is busy making roofs and furniture, in the evening he attends secondary classes, then the faculty of Architecture at the Technische Universität in Berlin, where he graduated in 2004 (his thesis is the project for the construction of the school of Gando which then will realize) and where in 2004 he founded his studio.
Kéré (who in 1998 had founded the Schulbausteine für Gando association to help and accompany the development of his village) was chosen by the jury led by Alejandro Aravena, Pritzker Prize 2016, for his attitude “in finding brilliant ways, stimulating and revolutionary “. In a world where architects are building projects in the most diverse contexts not without controversy, the motivation continues, “Kéré contributes to the debate incorporating the local, national, regional and global dimensions in a very personal balance between basic experience, academic quality, technology and real multiculturalism, which also reminds us of the struggle necessary to change the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, raising reflections on the meaning of permanence and durability of building ».
Kéré’s architectures are largely African (such as the Burkina Faso National Assembly in Ouagadougou), with successful moves to Geneva (the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum), and to China (Zhou Shan Harbor Development). And they are architectures imbued with symbolism and profound poetry which, even far from Africa, remain influenced by his upbringing and his experiences in Gando. The tradition of communicating under a sacred tree to exchange ideas, tell stories, celebrate and come together thus finds himself in the Serpentine Pavilion in London (2017) while the blue refers to the blue of boubou worn as a child. Even the roof is a reference to Africa but the rainwater that is channeled into the center of the Pavilion wants to highlight the scarcity of water that is gripping the whole world.
“I hope to make people dream and take risks – so Kéré, excited, commented on his Pritzker -. Everyone deserves quality, everyone deserves luxury, everyone deserves comfort. We are interconnected and concerns about the climate, democracy and scarcity are concerns for all of us ”.
The ceremony
The delivery of the Pritzker Prize 2022 to Diébédo Francis Kéré will take place in May in the Great Hall of the Marshall Building of the London School of Economics and Political Science designed by Grafton Architects
March 15, 2022 (change March 15, 2022 | 22:05)
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