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