Diébédo Francis Kéré, a Burkina Faso native, has become the first Black architect to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious award in the field. The Pritzker winner, who has earned many accolades in his career, said he’s still in disbelief after winning the latest award.
“Can you imagine?” he told NPR. “I was born in Burkina Faso, in this little village where there was no school. And my father wanted me to learn how to read and write very simply because then I could then translate or read him his letters.”
Kéré was competing against elite architects, including Sir David Adjaye, who is best known for designing the Nobel Peace Center in Norway and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
“Francis Kéré is pioneering architecture — sustainable to the earth and its inhabitants — in lands of extreme scarcity,” committee chair Tom Pritzker said in a statement. “He is equally architect and servant, improving upon the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of the world that is at times forgotten. Through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness and invention, and by the integrity of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize.”
Francis Kéré becomes the first African architect to win the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel
— Elizabeth Pears (@BizPears) March 15, 2022
His designs include the Benin National Assembly, which resembles a palaver tree, a traditional gathering place for discussion and debatehttps://t.co/1gv7L4ApTg pic.twitter.com/T5ZcVrztxi
The distinguished architect remembers the difficulties he faced as a child, sitting in classrooms with more 100 children, in a region where the temperature was scorching hot.
“You will sit and it’s very hot inside,” Kéré said. “And there was no light, while outside, the sunlight was abundant and in my head, I think, the idea one day grew [that] as an adult, I should make it better. I was thinking about space, about room, about how I can feel better.”
Following through on his plans, Kéré designed the Gando Primary School and Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School in Burkina Faso.
“I am creating a huge canopy for many, many children to be happy and learn how to read and write,” Kéré said, adding that he’s working to equip the building with well-ventilated spaces that reduce the need for air conditioning.
Kéré is now building his latest project in the capital of Benin. The new structure is a parliamentary building inspired by the palaver tree, the plant which is traditionally used in Africa as a place for community meetings.
“Literally speaking, it is a tree under which people come together to make decisions, to celebrate,” Kéré said. “You know, you get to think together and everyone can be part of the debate or the discussion.”
The architect completed his education in Berlin, Germany, earning an advanced degree in architecture from Technische Universität Berlin in 2004. He now owns his own architecture company in Berlin.
“He knows, from within, that architecture is not about the object but the objective; not the product, but the process,” the 2022 Jury Citation states. “Francis Kéré’s entire body of work shows us the power of materiality rooted in place. His buildings, for and with communities, are directly of those communities — in their making, their materials, their programs and their unique characters.”
