In 2022, the Pritzker Architecture Prize – often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture — was awarded to Francis Kere (born Diebedo Francis Kere). The win is, without a doubt, a milestone as Kere is the first African to win the industry’s most prestigious award.

He is particularly known for his social commitment to his home village of Gando in Burkina Faso, where his father was a community leader. His family had wanted him to be able to read, so as a child, he moved to Tenkodogo – a town with the nearest school – and lived there with a host family in exchange for manual labour.

Kere was the first child from his community to receive an education. The gruelling experience was not forgotten; years later, in 2001, the architect would launch his career by building a primary school in his very own hometown.

When he was 20 years old, he moved to Berlin, Germany, for carpentry training under a scholarship from the German NGO Carl Duisberg Society.

He later attended the Technische Universitat for a degree in Architecture and Engineering and, while still a student, launched his social project “Schulbausteine fuer Gando” (or “Bricks for the Gando School”). 

In 2005, he founded his architectural firm Kere Architecture in Berlin, and with it continued his early pro-bono work under the Kere Foundation “with the aim of giving back to the community of Gando that raised him” across education, environment and health.

Kere’s architectural style tends to be simple, ecological and purpose-driven – utilising local materials and emphasising the use of light.

He has designed buildings worldwide, including in Switzerland, China and the US, but Burkina Faso remains his prime focus. And despite having lived in Berlin for decades, he has yet to leave his architectural mark in the German city. 

He has taught at universities worldwide, including the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and the Yale School of Architecture – where courses with him are packed and waiting lists to enrol are often the case.

Kere is full of surprises and has even been commissioned to design an installation for Coachella in 2019. Titled Sarbale Ke (House of Celebration), it featured 12 large towers reflecting the importance of the baobab tree in West Africa.

The year 2022 was a good one for Kere. Besides the Pritzker Prize, he made it to Time’s “100 List”. It was thanks to his architectural process, which, according to the publication, is “predicated on knowledge ­building and knowledge sharing”.

As it is, the Burkinabe architect is currently working and living in Berlin.

NOTABLE ARCHITECTURAL WORKS BY FRANCIS KERE

GANDO PRIMARY SCHOOL (2001)

A fierce believer in the power of education, Kere wanted to build a school in his home town of Gando and raised funds under his independent project “Schulbausteine fuer Gando” along with friends while a student in Berlin. 

Aiming to approach the predominant Burkina Faso architectural issues of poor lighting and ventilation, he used sun-dried mud blocks and cement to create bricks that are impressive in their thermal insulation.

He also installed a dry-stacked brick ceiling for ventilation, a pioneering method that other schools later adopted.

All along the process, he involved the local community. After opening, school enrolment was overwhelmingly high – including students from neighbouring villages – and the structure was later expanded to include four additional classrooms as well as housing quarters for the teachers. 

It’s safe to say that it’s not incredibly common for an architect’s first projects to snag awards. Still, Kere’s Gando Primary School certainly did – winning the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004.

THE SERPENTINE PAVILION (2017)

Each year, London’s Serpentine Galleries is seen commissioning an architect to design their temporary pavilion in Kensington Gardens. In 2017, they invited none other than Kere.

Inspired by a tree in his hometown of Gando, the architect set out to design a community-driven pavilion that interacts with nature. He only used steel, timber, concrete and polycarbonate in his indigo-blue structure. It also had an exposed ceiling for “an immediate connection to the sky”. 

After it was dismantled, the pavilion was sold to the Malaysian gallery Ilham.

XYLEM PAVILION (2019)

Two years after his design for the Serpentine Pavilion, Kere revealed yet another pavilion at the Tippet Rise Art Centre in Fishtail, Montana, near Yellowstone National Park.

Set amid aspen trees and with a creek view, the architect’s Xylem Pavilion – entirely in pinewood – was built to be a quiet shelter for the institution's visitors.

LEO SURGICAL CLINIC AND HEALTH CENTRE (2014)

Kere’s Surgical Clinic and Health Centre was built in Leo – a village near the Burkina Faso-Ghana border – to “ease pressure” on the existing hospital in the area.

Its design relies on a modular system, with modules protected by overlapping roofs, to shield its clay building base from both rain and the sun. The centre now serves over 50,000 people.

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Cover Credit: Urban Zintel/Kere Architecture

Writer | Bana Bissat

Bana Bissat is a Milan-based writer who reports on sound art for Sound of Life. She has written for Flash Art, Lampoon, and Cultured. @banabissat