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