Francis Kéré is 2022 Pritzker Prize Winner

For his efforts in “empowering and transforming communities through the process of architecture”, Diébédo Francis Kére is named as this year’s Pritzker Laureate, making him the first African architect to ever win the award. 

Kére was born on April 10, 1965 in Gando, Burkina Faso, and attended the Technical University of Berlin. His studio, Kéré Architecture, was founded in 2005 (alongside the Kéré Foundation e.V., a non-profit organization that pursues projects in Gando) and has been a recipient of numerous awards “for its restrained elegance of structure, pioneering use of material and an inclination towards building in regions unchartered by much of contemporary architecture.” 

Probably Kéré’s most prominent work is his first building, The Gando Primary School, which marked the beginning of his journey of serving communities through architecture. For this small institution, Kéré designed, raised funds, and realized in collaboration with the residents of his hometown while he was still a student. This garnered him the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture. 

Kéré currently keeps a growing portfolio with a dual focus on design excellence and social commitment, making the Pritzker jury call him “a singular beacon in architecture.” The jury adds that the architect has shown “how architecture today can reflect and serve needs, including the aesthetic needs, of peoples throughout the world.” His recent works include the Startup Lions Campus, an education center in Turkana County, Kenya that “responds to the pressing challenge of youth unemployment faced in the region by offering high-level training and access to international job opportunities,” and the Burkina Institute of Technology (BIT) in Koudougou, Burkina Faso, a rectangular courtyard “designed using a system of repeated modules, housing classrooms, and auxiliary functions.” The Republic of Benin also recently entrusted Kéré Architecture to design a new national assembly “that will embody the values of democracy and the cultural identity of its citizens.” For this, Kéré envisioned a building that takes inspiration from the palaver tree, the “age-old West African tradition of meeting under a tree to make consensual decisions in the interest of a community.” Benin National Assembly is set to stand in Porto-Novo, Republic of Benin, and is currently under construction. 

Francis Kéré is also an architecture instructor, with past and present engagements at TU München, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and Yale University. He has participated in various solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Museo ICO in Madrid, the Architekturmuseum in Munich, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. •