By combining local materials and skills with innovative design and smart engineering solutions, while maintaining a focus on working with local communities, Diébédo Francis Kéré has transformed architecture not only in Burkina Faso, but also across Africa and beyond. Kéré had to leave home when he was only 7 in order to be able to attend school. Studying in dark, hot, unventilated classrooms instilled in him the desire to make better buildings and his career as architect. He studied in Germany and established the Kéré Foundation to raise money for his ambition to design and build a school for his birthplace. In all his projects in Africa, Kéré has focused on providing simple, achievable plans for buildings that utilize the skills and energies of the local community – employing traditional building materials and marrying them with modern design. Kéré’s designs weave together elements of traditional African design, with modern architecture, as revealed in the colors of Coachella’s
Sarbalé Ke (2019), the wooden patterns of
Xylem (2019) at Tippet Rise Art Center, USA, and his constant referencing of trees – of their central role in providing shade and a social center (
Serpentine Pavilion 2017).
By combining local materials and skills with innovative design and smart engineering solutions, while maintaining a focus on working with local communities, Diébédo Francis Kéré has transformed architecture not only in Burkina Faso, but also across Africa and beyond.
Kéré was born in Burkina Faso, in the village of Gando, however, from the age of seven he had to go to live with his uncle in a nearby town in order to be able to attend school. The experience of studying in dark, hot, unventilated classrooms instilled in him the desire to make better buildings and led him to becoming an architect.
He received a vocational carpentry scholarship to study in Germany and was subsequently awarded a scholarship to attend the Technical University of Berlin in 1995, graduating in 2004 with an advanced degree in architecture.
Although Kéré was in Europe, a long way from his village, he hadn’t forgotten his early experience of inadequate school buildings and he determined to find a way to provide his village with a school – but one that would be suitable for the climatic conditions. He established the Kéré Foundation and set about raising money for the project but his plans faced issues within the community in Gando. “We have been taught that a school building should be like in France with concrete and a lot of glass, but we don't have the money to do that. So, I had to fight to explain to people that we have to think differently.”
This “thinking differently” approach is at the heart of Kéré’s arrestingly beautiful architecture. In the school in Gando and other projects in Africa, Kéré has focused on providing simple, achievable plans for buildings that utilize the skills and energies of the local community – employing traditional building materials and marrying them with modern design, allowing in light and much needed ventilation, while at the same time ensuring a sense of pride for its users. “Of course, I want to create quality. I want to create comfort. But I want my client to be inspired by the result.”
Kéré was given the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004 for his
Gando Primary School (2001), providing the catalyst for establishing his own practice, Kéré Architecture in Berlin in 2004. Following on from the success of the school, he has been involved with numerous community focused buildings such as schools and medical facilities in Africa. He is currently involved with the design for the new
Benin National Assembly.
Weaving together elements of traditional African design, with modern architecture, Kéré has worked on some temporary and permanent structures in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. References to his African roots can be seen in design elements such as the colors of Coachella’s
Sarbalé Ke (2019), the wooden patterns of
Xylem (2019) at Tippet Rise Art Center, USA, and his constant referencing of trees – of their central role in providing shade (
Serpentine Pavilion 2017) or even the focus of a form of democratic debate as in the new
Benin National Assembly. Kéré said in an interview, “I’m trying to create design that is really high quality but at the same time, I want my culture to be represented.”
He has been Professor at Technical University of Munich since 2017. Awards include Swiss Architectural Award (2010) and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture (2021). He is the first architect from Africa to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2022.
