Diébédo Francis Kéré, architect
Burkina Faso
About the Artwork
"Architecture is much more than art."
Social architecture: a school in Gando
At a young age Diébédo Francis Kéré decided to give back to his village what he learned in Europe. He took up himself of ensuring that his village would not be deprived of a school and with a group of friends in Germany, Kéré set up still at the time of his University studies a fund- raising association “Schulbausteine für Gando”. Having secured finance through the association he went back home. He wanted to do the thing with local technologies. This means that school children had to arrive at school with a big stone on their head until the material was sufficient. He trained brick makers in the technique of working with compressed stabilized earth. At first the population was disappointed because they expected to have a school building in concrete in the French manner.
"Architecture is much more than art."
Gando - Phase 1 (2001)
But now they are happy because with temperatures above 40 0 C earth is much more comfortable. And the architecture is aesthetically so perfect in its simplicity (bricks and a huge corrugated iron-roof) that it is a recipient of the Aga Khan award of 2004 and the Swiss BSI architectural award in 2010 from the hands of star architect Mario Botta with the following words:
Gando-Phase 2
His experience: Economical and (building)-cultural sustainability can only be achieved, if the local people get the chance to actively participate. With his school buildings Kéré also demonstrated that the traditional building material of compressed earth is ideal for buildings of a high standard of the indoor climate.
Project Gallery
About the Artist(s)
The architect Diébédo Francis Kéré born 1965 in Gando (Burkina Faso) is the oldest son of the tribal chief of his village of earth cottages. As such he was the first and only boy of the village to be sent to school in the nearby town Tenkodogo. Later on, thanks to a German development aid program, he came to Berlin, where he completed grammar school and then obtained the architects diploma at the Technical University of Berlin, where then he became a teacher.
"My personal motivation, why I am dealing with social architecture, why I am trying to empower people, is very simple. It is about the pleasure to be able to give something to people who do not have any access to information and where education is still a dream for the majority of the population.”
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