Fascinating. I never heard of this guy before. He does gorgeous buildings.
Diébédo Francis Kéré Wins the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize
“Everyone deserves quality, everyone deserves luxury, and everyone deserves comfort,” the Burkina Faso–born architect said.
By Anna Fixsen
Mar 15, 2022
Diébédo Francis Kéré, the Berlin- and Burkina Faso–based architect best known for structures that are as beautiful as they are socially engaged, has been named the winner of the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, an honor considered to be the Nobel Prize of the architectural profession.
Since starting his practice 17 years ago, Kéré has become renowned for projects in his native Burkina Faso—one of the most impoverished nations in the world—and beyond. The projects, created by his firm Kéré Architecture and often backed by his eponymous foundation, are characterized by humble materials, graceful-yet-innovative forms, and community involvement.
Diébédo Francis Kéré
Courtesy Francis Kéré
“I am hoping to change the paradigm, push people to dream and undergo risk,” Kéré said in the prize’s announcement. “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.”
Kéré was born in Gando, Burkina Faso, in 1965, the son of the village chief. Because the community had no school, a young Kéré was sent to a neighboring town to study. But even then, the concrete-block building lacked ventilation and light. At the age of 20, Kéré moved to Berlin on a scholarship to study carpentry and furniture design, but was later awarded a scholarship to study architecture at Technische Universität Berlin. His home village remained in his thoughts, however: “Since I was a student, I wanted to open up better opportunities to kids in Gando,” Kéré explained in a TEDTalk. “I just wanted to use my skills and build a school.”
The Gando Primary School.
Courtesy Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk
Kéré scraped together $50,000, relying on donations and pocket money from his fellow architecture students, returned to Gando, and built the school he dreamed of. It was his first and most seminal project. Kéré created a structure that relied on pressed-clay blocks and an elevated roof system to allow for natural ventilation, so that local children could have a comfortable, aesthetically pleasing learning environment in a region where temperatures can soar upwards of 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
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