On 15 March, at 2200 hours in Beijing, the Plizk Architectural Award announced the winner of the Plizek Award for 2022: Duébédo Francis Kéré, architect from Africa. This was the first time since the Plizk Award was created in 1979, for African architects. This marks a refocusing of the awards on previously marginalized construction practices, which perhaps implies a major shift in Western construction itself.

Débédo Francis Kere@Lars Borges

Duébédo Francis Kere, a architect, an educator and a social activist, was the 51st winner of the Prezk Award. He came from the village of Burkina Faso, a poor country in West Africa, and returned to the home country to build a large number of educational buildings after a degree from the University of Berlin, Germany. He uses geographical materials to build modern buildings that go beyond the building itself, designed to change the direction of community development, which proves the social impact of building beyond its use.

“Francis Keréré has built sustainable development buildings on land that is extremely scarce. He is both a architect and a service provider, improving the lives of countless people in a often forgotten region of the planet through beauty, humility, bold creativity, clear language of construction and mature thinking, bringing human beings outside the scope of the construction disciplines and observing the mission of the Plesetsk Award.” Evaluation of the Prezk Award.

Sarbalé Keart device@Iwan Baan

Francis Kéré said: “I hope to change the mindset of people and to promote their dreams and risk-taking. The waste of material cannot be taken for good reason. There can be no attempt at quality because of poverty, and every individual should enjoy quality, everyone should be comfortable and everyone should be entitled to “severe”. People are closely linked to the human being, and concerns about climate, democracy and physical deprivation are common themes for our humanity.”

Francis Kere, born in 1965 in Burkina Faso, one of the least educated and poorest countries in the world, has no clean drinking water, electricity and infrastructure, let alone construction.

“I is a community leader with no kindergarten, but the community is your home, and everyone will take care of you, and the entire village is your playground. I have been trying to find food and drinking water throughout the day, but we are still living together in the garrison to share and build houses. I recall that my grandmother sits in a room with only minor lights, while we are tightly strapped, we shook her voice, and we are surrounded in this room, where she calls upon us to come closer together and form a safe place — my first sense of the building.”

France

Mali National Park @Francis Kéré

Kere, the head of the village, was the first to attend school in the village, but only in Gando, who left his family for seven years. His primary classrooms in Tengo were filled with cement and lacked ventilation and lighting. Under the extreme climate, he was crowded with more than one hundred peers and had to endure several hours once, and he had pledged one day to make schools better.

In 1985, he left his home and went to Berlin, Germany, on the basis of a vocational carpentry scholarship: a day-to-day study on how to build roofs and produce furniture, and a evening course for secondary school. He received a further scholarship in 1995 to the Berlin Industrial University and graduated in 2004 and received a high degree in construction.

Although Kairé is far from Burkina Faso, his heart has never left his home. Recognizing the responsibility associated with his right to education, he established “Schulbausteine für Gando e.V”. Foundations, translated to mean “the preparation of the Gandodo School”, later renamed the Kere Foundation in 1998 to raise funds and promote children’s right to comfortable classrooms. His first building was the Gandodo Primary School (in 2001, Gandado, Burkina Faso), which was built and used by the people of Gando for their own sake. From conception to completion, the local population has contributed to their wisdom, labour and resources, and has built almost every part of the school manually, guided by the architects’ creative use of indigenous materials and modern engineering concepts.

Each time back to Cando, Kere offers home-based fathers and fathers with targeted ideas, technical knowledge, understanding of the environment, and aesthetic programmes. Through his cultural sensitivities and dedication, he dedicated himself to serving humanity and served as a model of generosity throughout the world. “I feel that my work is a personal task and a responsibility for this community. Indeed, everyone can spend time investigating what is available, and we must work to create the qualities needed to improve people’s lives.”

Gando Primary School @Erik-Jan Owerkerk

The Cando Primary School (Gando, Burkina Faso, 2001) laid the foundation for the concept of the Kere building — a source of power for the community to meet basic needs functionally and to compensate for social injustice in essence. His philosophy is backed by building and needs to encompass a dual solution — a modern entity designed to realize the potential for building facilities to cope with hot temperatures and poor lighting conditions with limited resources; and a firm social conviction to overcome uncertainties from within communities. He raised funds at the international level, ranging from project ideas to vocational skills training, and created a solid development opportunity for the local population. The adhesion of materials on the ground is reinforced by cement, forming bricks that are assembled in heat, which can be kept indoors while allowing the heat to be distributed through brick-making ceilings and broad-banded hanging roofs, thus achieving ventilation without air conditioning mechanical intervention.

“In Burkina Faso, a good building is a classroom where you can sit and get the filtered light into the blackboard, or on the desk. How can we take away the heat of the Sun while making full use of the light? Creating climate conditions to provide basic comfort and achieve realism