Francis Kéré wins the Pritzker Architecture Prize

He aims for comfort and beauty, things he very aptly considers are not - nor should ever be - the prerogative of the rich, but of everyone.

DS.WRITER:

Τάσος Γιαννακόπουλος

Image: Serpentine Pavilion | photo courtesy of Iwan Baan

Diébédo Francis Kéré was born in 1965, in Burkina Faso, and in 2022 wins the Pritzker. Since the Pritzker foundation’s establishment in 1979, it’s the first time that a black architect is honoured with the prize, one from the African continent at that. It is also the first time that a colour photograph of the winner is uploaded on the official site of the foundation, the past ones being all black-and-white and dominated by white men from Europe, America and Japan.

Diébédo Francis Kéré | photo courtesy of Lars Borges

Francis Kéré, other than having a very interesting personal history, makes even more interesting architecture. From Burkina Faso, one of the world’s most impoverished states, with a low education index and void of clean drinking water, electricity and infrastructure, Kéré manages to be the first in his village to attend school, and in 1985 he travels to Berlin, on a scholarship for a carpentry school. By day he makes furniture and roofs and at night he attends classes. Finally, he receives another scholarship for Technische Universität Berlin and in 2004 obtained his degree in architecture.

Benga Riverside School | photo courtesy of Francis Kéré

He says: “I grew up in a community where there was no kindergarten, but where community was your family. Everyone took care of you and the entire village was your playground. My days were filled with securing food and water, but also simply being together, talking together, building houses together. I remember the room where my grandmother would sit and tell stories with a little light, while we would huddle close to each other and her voice inside the room enclosed us, summoning us to come closer and form a safe place. This was my first sense of architecture.”

Léo Doctors’ Housing | photo courtesy of Francis Kéré

Gando Primary School | photo courtesy of Erik-Jan Owerkerk

His first work, completed in 2001, is the school of his hometown Gando, which has since then undergone many expansions. He founded with coworkers and classmates the Kéré Foundation and acquired funding in order to really give back to the people who supported and raised him. Not only through practical, humanitarian work but also through beauty that is able to inspire and make people dream. A fruit of this practice was the Aga Khan prize, awarded to him for showcasing through his work the power of design and architecture on a social, technological, economic and spiritual level.

Sarbalé Ke | photo courtesy of Iwan Baan

National Park of Mali | photo courtesy of Francis Kéré

National Park of Mali | photo courtesy of Iwan Baan

His architectural language is deeply rooted in the practical needs of each location and its people but transcends the economic and climatic restrictions that his works generate. He aims for comfort and beauty, things he very aptly considers are not - nor should ever be - the prerogative of the rich, but of everyone. The language of double roofs, thermal mass, wind towers, indirect lighting, cross ventilation and shade chambers is an artfully manipulated language that covers the programmatic and bioclimatic needs, resulting in plastic works with distinctive material presence and spatial arrangement.

Xylem | photo courtesy of Iwan Baan

Opera Village | photo courtesy of Francis Kéré

Centre for Health and Social Welfare | photo courtesy of Francis Kéré

Francis Kéré knows that architecture isn’t limited to the final object and that the architectural process itself is, many times, more important than the final product. His works use local materials and give proper answers to the local climates. He incorporates the local work force in his process, which he trains accordingly, revealing the economic connotations of architecture. Francis, with a dual citizenship from Burkina Faso and Germany and with offices and personal investment in both countries, practises architecture in extreme economic and climatic environments and makes clear that peripheries possess that special character able to put them in the centre of discussion regarding the improvement of people's lives. Knowledgable about the stories and the tradition, he shows in a lyrical and accurate manner that local communities can create for themselves and at the same time contribute to the ecumenical conversation, as equal interlocutors at the table of human civilization and knowledge.