Diébédo Francis Kéré, voice of African social architecture, wins the Pritzker 2022

Burkinabe Diébédo Francis Kéré, praised for his “sustainable” constructions at the service of communities, was awarded this Tuesday the Pritzker 2022, becoming the first African to obtain the highest distinction in architecture.

Known for building schools, health centers, housing, civic buildings and public spaces across Africa, Francis Kéré, as he is known professionally, is both “an architect and a server,” Tom Pritzker, president of the Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the event, said in a statement.

With 56 years of age and dual nationality from Burkina Faso and Germany, where he did much of his training since he was a teenager, Kéré's architecture “improves the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of the world that is sometimes forgotten”, explains the foundation awarded by this Nobel Prize for Architecture.

“As an architect, I don't just want to build but I want to design a space that serves those who use it. I want my building to offer shelter, comfort and inspiration,” Kéré said in a statement after receiving the award.

The narrative provided by the architecture of Kéré, born in a community of Gando, in Burkina Faso, “can be a source of continuous and lasting happiness and joy,” says the jury that chose his work.

“I hope to change the paradigm, push people to dream and take risks. It's not because you're rich that you have to waste material. Not because you are poor, you shouldn't try to create quality,” said the architect, who was able to study as the firstborn of the leader of the community where he was born.

“Everyone deserves quality, luxury and comfort. We are interconnected, and concerns about climate, democracy and scarcity affect us all,” he added in the statement.

- Double objective -

Its architectural solutions meet a dual objective: the functionality and modernity of its structures and to combat extreme temperatures and guarantee brightness to “fill an essential need and redeem social inequalities”.

Its buildings allow sunlight to enter, contain patios and intermediate spaces that allow you to combat torrid temperatures and high ceilings so that air circulates without the need for air conditioning.

Its solutions such as the concrete ceiling of the Gando Elementary School library have gaps that allow heat to escape while natural light filters in to illuminate the interiors.

A facade made of eucalyptus wood surrounds the building in an elliptical shape, creating flexible outdoor spaces that emit light vertically.

But the new school created in his homeland has also helped attract students, from 120 to 700 students.

The walls of the Benga Riverside school (2018, Tete, Mozambique) have small gaps that filter light and transparency “that evoke a sense of trust in its students”, highlights the jury made up of architects such as Chilean architects Alejandro Aravena, New Yorkers Barry Bergdoll and Deborah Berke, the Brazilian architecture critic André Aranha Corrêa do Lago or Italian architect Benedetta Tagliabue based in Barcelona (Spain).

The same goes for the walls of the 2014 Laongo Health and Social Security Center in his native country, which are adorned with models of window frames of different sizes with views of landscapes that can be enjoyed by everyone, from doctors to patients.

Kéré “knows from the inside that architecture is not about the object but with the objective; not with the product, but with the process”, and above all he teaches us that his buildings, which are made for and with communities, “are directly from these communities with their making, their materials, their programs and their unique characters,” he says the jury.

In addition to Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Kenya, Mozambique, Togo and Sudan, the Berlin-based Kéré architecture can also be found in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. And all his works are imprinted with his African culture where the community is at the center of the social structure.

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