Francis Kéré

The First African Architect Pritzker Architecture Prize Winner

"If we learn to build with local materials, we have a future. Architecture can bring a lot to a local society like mine. Architecture makes people proud, simply proud. And that can generate a lot of energy"

The Burkinabe architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has gone on to become one of the most distinguished contemporary architects, thanks to his pioneering of a communal approach to design and his commitment to sustainable materials, as well as modes of construction. Inspired by a curiosity for particularities of any given locality and its social tapestry, he has gathered a diverse, agile team at his Berlin-based Kéré Architecture offices, to take on projects across four continents. Most prominently these include his design for the Benin National Parliament and the Goethe Institute in Dakar (both under construction), the Lycée Schorge Secondary School (2016), the Serpentine Pavilion (2017), and Xylem (2019) for the Tippet Rise Art Centre.

In 2022, Kéré became the first African architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. He is also the author of the books Momentum of Light, Francis Kéré Lycee Schorge Secondary School Koudougou, Francis Kéré: Of Clay and Community and Diébédo Francis Kéré. Fare architettura in Africa.

Underpinning his architectural practice are his past and current teaching engagements at Technical University of Munich, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, and Yale University as well as his participation in solo and group exhibitions including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Museo ICO in Madrid, the Architekturmuseum of Technical University of Munich, the MoMA in New York, the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.