The Hyatt Foundation has granted the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize to the Burkina Faso architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, the first African architect to receive the distinction. The award is bestowed yearly since 1979, and consists of 100,000 USD (91,000 euros).
Born in Gando in 1965, Kéré moved to Germany to study architecture, and has become a symbol of social and sustainable construction. Though based in Berlin, where he set up his studio in 2005, Kéré travels back and forth to his home town to help transform the community where he grew up, creatively reinterpreting the limited resources and working with the local population, as he did in his first completed work, the Primary School in Gando, which received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004.
Some of his main works and projects are the National Park of Mali in Bamako; the Opera Village in Laongo (Burkina Faso); the Gando Library (Burkina Faso); the Léo Surgical Clinic and Health Center (Burkina Faso); Lycée Schorge in Koudougou (Burkina Faso); the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion of 2017 in London; and the Burkina Faso National Assembly in Ouagadougou.
The 44th Pritzker Prize Ceremony will be held at the Marshall Building in London, a work by Grafton Architects.
Luis Fernández-Galiano: Necessary Beauty
Luis Fernández-Galiano. Semper in Gando: a Practical Aesthetic
Luis Fernández-Galiano: Kéré from Spain
Primary School, Gando
National Park of Mali Complex, Bamako
Opera Village, Laongo
Gando Library
Surgical and Health Center, Léo
Lycée Schorge, Koudougou
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2017, London
Burkina Faso National Assembly, Ouagadougou
