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)
Feature: Francis Kéré
Statement 4
Francis Kéré
Essay:
From Burkina Faso, (Made) in Germany, for the World 8
Andres Lepik
Gando Primary School 12
Gando Teachers’ Housing 20
Gando Primary School Extension 26
Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School 34
Dano Secondary School 38
Surgical Clinic and Health Center 44
Doctors’ Housing 52
Opera Village 56
Center for Health and Social Welfare 64
National Park of Mali 70
Center for Earth Architecture 76
Lycée Schorge Secondary School 84
Burkina Institute of Technology 96
Essay:
Architecture as Common Ground: A New Language in the Work of
Francis Kéré 106
Nana Biamah-Ofosu
Meroë Royal Baths Protective Shelter 112
Serpentine Pavilion 114
Kamwokya Community Playground 118
SKF-RTL Children Learning Center 120
Louisiana Canopy 124
Xylem 128
Weilheim Waldorf School 132
Memorial Thomas Sankara 134
Burkina Faso National Assembly 136
Sarbalé Ke 140
Benin National Assembly 144
Goethe Institut Dakar 148
Startup Lions Campus 150
Taylor Bridge 154
Essay:
Umqambi Wesino 156
Ruth-Ann Richardson
Lycée Schorge Chair 164 / ZIBA Stool 166
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum Permanent Exhibition 168 / Sensing Spaces Pavilion 170 / Colorscape 174 / Racism: The Invention of Human Races 176 / What is Radical Today? 178
Essay:
Spaces of Translation: Installation and Exhibition Design of
Francis Kéré 179
Lois Innes