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francis Kéré in his studio in Berlin, showing the compressed earthen bricks used for the school in Gando, Burkina fasoPhoto: © Veerle Devos

locals celebrating the nearly-finished roof of the school in Gando, Burkina faso. “thus proving it’s strong enough.”Photo: © Francis Kéré

Francs Kéré: “I’m a bridge between the technically and economically developed countries in the West and the less developed African countries”, says Burkina Faso-born, Berlin-based Francis Kéré. The first part of this interview took place at Design Indaba, the yearly fes-tival in Cape Town. Kéré, an ‘architect for humanity’, was one of the guest speakers who received a standing ovation. Together with local communities, he’s building cost effective architecture using local skills and mate-rials. The sequel to our talk took place in his Berlin headquarters and concerned how one can change the world through architecture. DAMn°: Being the eldest son of a chief, your life must have been very different before you received the scholarship that took you away from your native vil-lage, Gando.FK: “Very much indeed. But I didn’t live a privileged life in my hometown of Gando (a village 200 km east of the capital, Ouagadougou). I was born into a fam-ily of 200, 300 members that, according to Western standards, was down and out. My father, even though he was the village headman, used the same old bicy-cle until old age. But we are rich in social relation-

ships, which makes us a very happy family. I became even more aware of this when I noticed how detached many people are in the West, even within their fami-lies. You know, in the West I learned about techniques but it was definitively in Burkina Faso that I devel-oped the patience and empathy to work with people. It’s a quality I rely on heavily when I work together with local people. Also, as the eldest son of the chief I was always expected to take care of the people in my village, and this has led my life in a certain direc-tion. Everybody in Burkina can see on my face that this is my duty (Kéré has ritual incisions on his face that show his status), so I’ve always felt responsible. When I got the opportunity to study in Germany and to become an architect, I never thought of becoming a ‘starchitect’. I thought about how to improve my country of birth instead. I want to establish lasting transformations. I don’t just want to build; I want to educate people about how to build.”

DAMn°: And you did: while still studying, you start-ed building a school in your village, together with the locals. In 2004, when you won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, followed by other awards for sus-

Brick by Brickit’s actually so very logical, but it is an attitude that has been a long time coming. Enter francis Kéré, an african architect who is applying his Western education and accompanying technical skills to improving conditions in his native country whilst simultaneously educating the locals and setting a fine and inspirational example for fellow africans. having started with the building of a village school in Burkina faso, he believes in investing in his homeland, with an intention to lift it out of its poverty mire and thereby improve its lot. his magic touch lies in the respect he shows others and the engagement he offers.

Francis Kéré paves the way for change

text VEErlE dEVos

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tainable architecture, it put Gando on the world map.FK: “I was delighted with those awards! As a student I had founded ‘Schulbausteine für Gando’ (Bricks for the school at Gando), and I began collecting the funds to build a school for 120 students. It was not only that I wanted to give my village a better school (the one that then existed was not suitable for the climate: in the hot season indoor temperatures climbed to 40°C and upwards), but I also wanted to involve the community in its construction. I succeeded in mobi-lising the whole village. I can assure you this asked a lot of effort, because people are critical. I had to convince them, for instance, not to imitate the West by building in concrete like they were used to do-ing. Concrete might work in the West but it’s not a good building material in a hot and humid country like Burkina Faso: it keeps the heat inside and doesn’t breathe. Instead I suggested alternative building ma-terials that would lower the temperature. Inspiration came from the traditional way of building with mud that people used before they switched to concrete. Once convinced, women, men and children carried water to the site, collected stones, and dug clay for the bricks. The result was a building made of blocks of

compressed earth, combined with a special roof ven-tilation system I developed that’s also resistant to the omnipresent termites. Within weeks, more and more children were attending this much cooler school. I trained the artisans to work with local materials so that they would be educated, for the future. And by working together as a community, the villagers could see their school as a shared project. The Gando school attracted international recognition, and that’s how I started my career as an architect.” DAMn°: The Gando school, completed in 2001, was only the first of your projects in Burkina Faso and in Africa. It seems to be a deliberate choice of yours to build schools, teachers’ houses, libraries, and even an opera village.FK: “Education and culture are very important for Africa’s future. Burkina is one of the poorest coun-tries in the world, with more than 80% of the inhabit-ants being illiterate. In order to build a bright future, this continent needs good education and examples of good practice. I feel it my duty as an African living in the West to invest in Africa. And I’m happy to an-nounce I’m not the only one! I notice a trend in which

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Mock-up of the opera Village near ouagadougou that Kéré developed together with the late German theatre, opera and film director christoph schlingensief, who posthumously received a Golden lion in Venice (all images)

successful Africans living in the worldwide diaspora don’t just send money home, but actually do some-thing in their cities and countries of birth. Thus they invest in the future of their continent. This is such an important evolution! I’m proud to say that at my office I receive many emails and letters from young Africans living in the West. They tell me they have come across my work and are inspired by it. Now they want to find out how they can invest in their village of birth. Some of them tell me they want to become architects too. There are even some who write that they want to become Francis…”

DAMn°: Besides your projects in Africa you’re also active in the ‘first world’ – for instance, the recent ‘Towards a Museum of Hope’ project for the Interna-tional Red Cross in Geneva. And there’s the creativity garden in Zhou Shan, China, to name another. How does the Chinese government, which continues to imprison the artist Ai Weiwei and which has a repu-tation of building without taking into account local people’s interests, appreciate an ‘architect for human-ity’ who works with great respect for local people?FK: “My Chinese colleague Wang Shu, with whom I’m working on this project, is very much against how things are done in China: buildings that are hardly 10 years old are destroyed to make way for new ones. Tabula rasa… We succeeded to convince the gov-ernment that it’s not necessary to destroy the past in order to create something new. Renovation is much

better, preserving existing parts is much more inter-esting. So our project in Zhou Shan refers to the past: its busy shipping activities as a ‘small’ fishing port – according to Chinese standards. We use local materi-als like bamboo, and traditional methods. We refer to the past by using recovered iron from the former shipyard. So of course the Chinese just want archi-tects to build buildings instead of operating as activ-ists, but thanks to our respectful communication, we managed to convince them. You know, I didn’t go to China to lecture or criticise them. Instead I worked in the same way I work with local people in Africa, and I got things done: I told them that I wanted to learn from them. The result was that the Chinese client was especially open to our new ideas. Of course it was not always easy, but that was more due to the typi-cal contrasts between East and West. I believe that, as architects, we can change the world by building good, sustainable, human architecture -- in China, and pretty much everywhere else on the globe. It just takes additional engagement.”

DAMn°: You like to work together with other profes-sionals who have a mission. Recently you accepted the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Not for your-self, but on behalf of the late German director Chris-toph Schlingensief, with whom you collaborated to build an opera village near Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Schlingensief referred to opera in its present form as “a prison in which high culture has made

francis Kéré in his Berlin hQ, showing the mock-up creativity Garden in zhou shan, china

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Which Levis-world is yours?

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the creativity Garden in zhou shan, china: bird’s eye view of the Plateau with the public area and tea garden, and view from the public space towards the mountain (top, both images)

Preview of the ‘towards a Museum of hope’ project for the international red cross in Geneva (above, both images)

itself feel comfortable.” Your Opera Village tries to turn opera back into a “social sculpture” (Beuys) by taking it back to its native social and political envi-ronment, surrounded by young people and external influences. FK: Christoph was a good friend whose work I ad-mired. He got the Golden Lion for the German pavilion posthumously, and Operndorf – the Opera Village -- was part of that. As his artistic partner for this project, I was invited to receive the award. Christoph supported my idea that European technology and science could be usefully employed in my home country. The Opern-dorf is another example of this conviction. The purpose was not only to build the first opera in Africa. That’s not the point. The point is to bring opera back to its roots. Opera has become a sophisticated, elitist art form that is enjoyed only by the privileged social class, whereas, initially, it was a more popular and interactive art form. And of course we wanted to create a platform where Eu-ropeans and Africans could share their experiences, in an equal partnership. So our aim was not just to build an Opera in Ouagadougou. Moreover, after a devastat-ing flood destroyed the makeshift houses where we were initially planning to build, we decided to develop an entire Opera Village that could also accommodate flood victims. It is structured like a traditional African

village, with small modules arranged around a central Opera theatre that can seat 500 spectators. This theatre is a multifunctional space that can be used for perform-ances and meetings, with a school for music and film, artist studios and workshops, a digital archive, a restau-rant run by the villagers, sports facilities, gardens and agricultural plots for growing food, and even a hospi-tal for locals who can’t afford a doctor. Similar to my other projects, we use as many local building materials as possible and we work closely with the villagers -- Europeans and Africans together. This Operndorf is a real meeting point: sharing is the key to development. And we have created an infrastructure that makes this possible. The discussion about the real nature of opera, as initiated by our Operndorf, is only one of the very interesting side effects. #

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