In Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, the mausoleum for Thomas Sankara has been inaugurated. It pays tribute to the country’s revolutionary former president and twelve officials close to him, all assassinated in 1987 during a coup d’êtat. The
A group of modular pavilions houses an educational center that provides high school graduates in the country’s third most populous city with the opportunity to obtain further studies. The location being a flood plain, landscaping work was needed to p
Shortlisted in the international section of the 2020 FAD Awards, the project submitted by Albert Faus Madrid (Barcelona, 1972) involves reorganizing the Bangre Veenem educational complex, with its existing primary school serving the village of Youlou
After 31 years of dictatorial rule, the people of Burkina Faso rose up and ousted their former president following a violent revolt in 2014. In protest of the old regime, the former National Assembly was attacked and destroyed by the citizens. Aside
Situated in the rural countryside of Boulkiemdé province, the Noomdo Orphanage lies approximately 2 kilometers outside Koudougou, and is home to more than fifty children between the ages of six and seventeen. Mimicking the nearby residential compound
The success of the primary school in Gando and its positive impact on the community encouraged to build a secondary school to offer opportunities to those students who wanted to continue their studies. Inspired in the distribution of the surrounding
Developed to establish an exchange between local craftsmen, builders, architects, students, and visitors, Atelier Gando was initiated under the organization of Francis Kéré with the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in Switzerland. The Atelier w
The Songtaaba Women’s Association is made up of approximately 300 members from the village of Gando and the surrounding province of Boulgou. The association provides a venue for the local women to form a strong social and economic union, in order to
The construction of a health center as part of the Opera Village project followed the aim of improving basic health assistance for the local population. The CSPS, acronym for Centre de Santè et de Promotion Sociale, is fit out with the necessary inst
Two years before his death, artist, filmmaker, and playwright Christoph Schlingensief managed to embark Kéré on his dream of building an opera house in the heart of Africa. While traveling through Burkina Faso in search of the adequate site, the coun
Following the strategies applied at the Primary School in Gando, the main aim of the project was to design a sustainable school that would adapt to the extreme conditions of Burkina Faso. Its construction was carried out with the help of workers who
Two years after the opening of the primary school in Gando, demand continued to increase, which encouraged to add an extension for more than 120 students. The extension was designed following the same principles that inspired the first school. The wa
The teachers’ houses were designed to attract teachers out to the countryside, as well as to promote the use of earth as a sustainable and durable building material. The houses were realized as a series of adaptable modules, each of size comparable t
With a population of 3000 inhabitants, Gando is a small village in the southern plains of burkina faso. It is located 200 kilometers from Ouagadougou, the country´s capital. In 1998, Francis Kéré launched a project to build a school in his native vil
Health is a luxury in Africa, especially for the rural population, which lives so far from the few hospitals and healthcare centers of quality that exist in the countryside, such facilities tending to concentrate in capitals and large cities.
Located on the outskirts of Koudougou, the third most populated city of Burkina Faso, the new Lycée Schorge building draws inspiration from traditional settlements in this part of West Africa, offering reinterpretations of vernacular building materia
Within the education complex of Gando, the library is located between the two volumes that make up the school and its extension, so a covered courtyard is generated between them. Resorting to the same technique used in the other two pieces that const
Situado en un barrio muy pobre, protegido por una gran cubierta y construido con materiales locales, el edificio está destinado a la concienciación sobre los derechos de la mujer.
While architectural photography is typically known to showcase isolated buildings and pristine environments, the work of Iwan Baan (Alkmaar, Netherlands, 1975) goes beyond this approach of reproducing artificially perfected environments. The book Mom
In the beginning was the tree. If Gottfried Semper had extended his archaeological and ethnographic explorations to the African Savannah, he would there have found confirmation of many of his theses, and he would have modified others to enrich his na
Francis Kéré commences a third century for our monographs, and there are good reasons for this. The most evident refer to his leading role in a new generation of architects determined to build a better world working for those in need, for whom the Bu
Diébédo Francis Kéré está construyendo una biblioteca pública en la aldea burkinesa de Gando, en la que el arquitecto afincado en Berlín nació hace 47 años: un nuevo edificio que se añade a los dos —aulario y residencia de profesores— que componen la
