Diébédo Francis Kéré (born 10 April 1965) is a Burkinabé-German architect, recognized for creating innovative works that are often sustainable and collaborative in nature. In 2022, he became the first native African to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Educated at Technische Universität Berlin, he has lived in Berlin since 1985. Parallel to his studies, he established the Kéré Foundation (formerly Schulbausteine für Gando), and in 2005 he founded Kéré Architecture. His architectural practice has been recognized internationally with awards including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2004) for his first building, the Gando Primary School in Burkina Faso, and the Global Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction (2012 Gold).
Kéré has undertaken projects in various countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Togo, Sudan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the US, and the UK. In 2017 the Serpentine Galleries commissioned him to design the Serpentine Pavilion in London. He has held professorships at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Yale School of Architecture and the Swiss Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. In 2017 he accepted the professorship for "Architectural Design and Participation" at the Technical University of Munich, and a guest professorship at Bauhaus University, Weimar, in 2021.
Early life and education Kéré was born in the village of Gando, Burkina Faso. He was the first child in the village to be sent to school as his father, the village chief, wanted his eldest son to learn how to read and translate his letters. Since no school existed in Gando, Kéré had to leave his family when he was 7 years old to live with his uncle in the city. After finishing his education, he became a carpenter and received a scholarship from the Carl Duisberg Society to do an apprenticeship in Germany as a supervisor in development aid. After completing the apprenticeship, he went on to study architecture at Technische Universität Berlin, graduating in 2004.
During his studies he felt it was his duty to contribute to his family and to the community which had supported him, and to give the next generation the opportunity to follow in his footsteps. In 1998, with the help of his friends, Kéré set up the association Schulbausteine für Gando e.V. (now Kéré Foundation), which loosely translates as "Building Blocks for Gando", to fund the construction of a primary school for his village. His objective was to combine the knowledge he had gained in Europe, with traditional building methods from Burkina Faso. He completed his studies and built the first school in Gando as his diploma project in 2004, while also opening his own architectural office Kéré Architecture.
Career Kéré is known for involving community in his projects and for his innovative use of vernacular materials and techniques.
Teaching Kéré has worked as a lecturer at Technische Universität Berlin. In spring 2011, he lectured at Virginia Tech, Washington University, and the University of Texas. The following summer he lectured at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and in autumn 2012 he was a visiting professor at Harvard. He also taught at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. Kéré accepted a newly created professorship for Architectural design and Participation at the Technical University of Munich in 2017. He was awarded a visiting professorship at the Yale School of Architecture. In 2021 Kéré took a position as guest professor at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.Bauhaus University in Weimar (2021) "Diébédo Francis Kéré is the Bauhaus Guest Professor for the 2021/2022 Winter Semester"
Architecture and design projects in Gando
Kéré began working to design a school for his home village of Gando while he was enrolled at Technische Universität Berlin. The collaborative processes Kéré developed with Gando inhabitants and the innovative, local and ecological techniques and materials they created led Kéré to receive a Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2009.
Kéré's architecture was conceived of and built with the help of village inhabitants. The village, located at the south east of Ouagadougou, has approximately 3000 inhabitants who live in mud huts without access to running water or electricity. According to the UN Human Development Index in 2011, Burkina Faso is the 7th-least developed country in the world. Most residents are subsistence farmers, remaining dependent on the harsh climate which has restricted rainfall between October and June, and high daytime temperatures of 45 °C.
Gando Primary School
Kéré's primary school, the first for Gando, was completed in 2001. Schools in Burkina Faso are routinely built out of concrete, an expensive and energy consumptive material to produce, ill-suited to the local climate, as the interior becomes intolerably hot. Kéré wanted to use locally available resources and chose to build with earth in the form of mud bricks. Kéré's innovative design consisted of a wide, raised tin roof to protect the walls from rain, and allow air to circulate underneath for building cooling. The finished building was cooler and more pleasant inside than the conventional concrete school buildings. He won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the design in 2004.
Kéré drew preliminary building plans in the sand to communicate with villagers, many of whom were illiterate, and found they fully engaged with the project, with many generating their own suggestions for improvement. Kéré said, “Only those who are involved in the development process can appreciate the results achieved, develop them further, and protect them”. The entire population of Gando took part in the construction of the school. Village members received on-site training in construction techniques. Neighboring villages, impressed by Gando's community organization and achievement, set out to build their own schools.
A later addition to the primary school, completed by Kéré in 2012, contains a public library. As in the original building, locals took part in the construction, producing dozens of bottomless clay pots which are set into the roof to allow light into the library's reading room.
Gando Mango Tree Project Kéré initiated a project of planting mango trees to better meet the communities' needs and address several major problems in the region including malnutrition. Kéré developed a strategy in which prior to planting the tree, a hole is filled with old bones and meat, and left for a few days. Over time, the bones and meat attract ants, which colonize the hole and eat the termites. This enables the trees to grow without needing any insecticide. For natural fertilizer, chickens are kept in the shade of the trees. Kéré then had residents place hand-made clay pots next to the trees, with drippers targeted directly to the roots, which gave the trees a small but constant supply of water. The clay pots prevent evaporation loss and only need to be filled once a week.
Gando Secondary School
Construction of a secondary school designed by Kéré began in May 2011. The new building complex was designed to accommodate approximately 1000 students. The layout is inspired by the traditional rural households in Burkina Faso: the classrooms are set out in a circular fashion forming a protected courtyard, shielding it from the dust and sand brought by the Harmattan winds. The structure is open on its west side, allowing a cool breeze to enter the area, an innovative air-cooling system using only natural ventilation. The school is surrounded by a bank of earth, on which trees are planted. The trees provide shade, and rainwater is gathered to provide them with water. Perforated pipes are laid underneath the earth banks, and gather moisture. Wind cools down as it blows through the pipes, and emerges in the classrooms through holes in the floor, providing a zero emissions under-floor cooling system. This design won the 2012 Global Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction Gold.
The secondary school uses the same roof design as the primary school, with a wide corrugated iron roof raised above a clay ceiling. Air circulates between the ceiling and roof, heats up and rises, creating a suction current below. This causes the cool air from the under-floor pipes to rise, reducing room temperature by an estimated 6 – 8 °C. With simple yet effective methods such as these, the school requires little electricity both for construction and maintenance. In order to combat deforestation issues Burkina Faso faces, the secondary school used wood from eucalyptus trees for construction, and mango trees were planted in their place. The mango trees need less water, produce fruit and provide more shade than eucalyptus trees.
As with Kéré's other projects, the secondary school uses local manpower for construction. Specialists trained by Kéré supervise members of the local community, training them in the necessary building techniques. Rather than building the walls brick by brick, Kéré has devised a quicker way of pouring mud and a small quantity of cement into a mould.
Atelier Gando Developed in 2014, the Atelier is a building which functions as a community center and on-site base for building projects. A group of students from the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio helped Kéré plan and build the first steps of the construction.
Other architecture and design projects
Dano Secondary School
The secondary school project in Dano, Burkina Faso was inspired by Kéré's previous work in Gando. The excessive daytime heat was once again the major issue, but this time there were different local resources. Laterite stone, native to the region, was used as the main building material. The building was set at an east–west orientation which reduces direct solar radiation onto the walls, and the sharply protruding roof creates a lot of shade. The roof design with its system of natural ventilation allows the air to circulate between the mud brick ceiling and the raised tin roof. The building consists of three classrooms, a computer room and an office. There is also an amphitheatre designed for use during break times. Finished in 2007, the building work was largely done by people trained in the Gando school projects, giving them the opportunity to use and develop their skills, while also reducing construction costs.
Centre for Earth Architecture, Mopti
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture has spent over 10 years renovating mosques in Northern Mali. Finished in 2010, the Centre for Earth Architecture in Mopti is part of this series of projects, following the restoration of the mosque and the construction of a new sewerage system. The centre is intended to be much more than an exhibition space: the building is the product of the same ancient building techniques used in the Great Mosques in Mopti, Timbuktu and Djenné. It demonstrates how a material that is a part of the area's heritage can be used in a modern context. The centre is made up of an exhibition hall, a community centre, public toilets and a restaurant, responding to the needs of the district management of Komoguel and visitors to the area, as well as the local community.
From the top of the flood barrier, it can be seen that the building is aligned with the mosque. The building has a simple structure and its height corresponds to the neighbouring buildings without compromising the view of the mosque. When viewed from across the lake the centre manages to maintain a connection with the mosque but does not dominate the view.