a+u 2022:05 Feature: Francis Kéré
Content
a+u’s May issue features Francis Kéré, a Berlin-based architect originally from the West African nation of Burkina Faso. His earliest work, Gando Primary School, succeeded not only in providing a comfortable learning facility for the village where he was born and raised, but also demonstrated that the design process must embrace the cultural and material roots of a place and its people. As the Gando project expanded in scope to include other social amenities like a secondary school, library, and housing for teachers, Kéré’s architecture became a tool of community building and empowerment. This architecture of humanism relies on the metaphor of the palaver tree, under which a community gathers and knowledge is formed and transmitted. Kéré enriches local, basic materials and traditional know-how with thoughtful and forward-looking technological and ecological concepts, such as double roofs, wind towers, and shade chambers, creating a sustainable, low-cost, and high-performance architecture that serves as a model for the Global South. “As a translator who adds new meaning – to uncover, unlearn, and relearn,” Kéré takes advantage of the collective creativity of a place to create architecture “where in the end we see ourselves in it.” Opening with Gando Primary School and ending with ongoing construction projects, furniture pieces, and exhibitions, this monograph presents 34 works. In addition to texts by Kéré and guest editor Andres Lepik, 3 essays by younger architects of African origins situate Kéré’s work in the broader context of architecture and urbanization in the African continent, invoking issues of translatability, authenticity, justice, community, and empowerment. (a+u)
Statement
Francis Kéré
Essay:
From Burkina Faso, (Made) in Germany, for the World
Andres Lepik
Gando Primary School
Gando Teachers’ Housing
Gando Primary School Extension
Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School
Dano Secondary School
Surgical Clinic and Health Center
Doctors’ Housing
Opera Village
Center for Health and Social Welfare
National Park of Mali
Center for Earth Architecture
Lycée Schorge Secondary School
Burkina Institute of Technology
Essay:
Architecture as Common Ground: A New Language in the Work of Francis Kéré
Nana Biamah-Ofosu
Meroë Royal Baths Protective Shelter
Serpentine Pavilion
Kamwokya Community Playground
SKF-RTL Children Learning Center
Louisiana Canopy
Xylem
Weilheim Waldorf School
Memorial Thomas Sankara
Burkina Faso National Assembly
Sarbalé Ke
Benin National Assembly
Goethe Institut Dakar
Startup Lions Campus
Taylor Bridge
Essay:
Umqambi Wesino
Ruth-Ann Richardson
Lycée Schorge Chair
ZIBA Stool
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum Permanent Exhibition
Sensing Spaces Pavilion
Colorscape
Racism: The Invention of Human Races
What is Radical Today?
Essay:
Spaces of Translation: Installation and Exhibition Design of Francis Kéré
Lois Innes
