Archinect - News

Kéré Architecture breaks ground on new timber childcare center at the Technical University of Munich

2024-04-24T15:45:00-04:00

Kéré Architecture has broken ground on a new all-wood childcare facility at the Technical University Munich (TUM). The design of the Ingeborg Pohl Kinderoase an der TUM is 700 square meters (7,500 square feet) in total and will hold space for 60 children in service to faculty members and their families.

Image copyright Kéré Architecture

The building, made possible through a donation from philanthropist Ingeborg Pohl, is defined by its playful interior, which incorporates a variety of scales and unique circulatory features, such as slides that connect each of its five floors.

Image copyright Kéré Architecture

Administrative suites are placed at the ground level, with three floors dedicated to children and divided by age group. A green roof play area called the Himmelswiese (German for “field of the heavens”) completes the program above. The firm has emphasized its use of timber throughout is meant to “take the sustainability of the building to the extreme.”

Image copyright Kéré Archi...

Francis Kéré designs new virtual museum of stolen artifacts for UNESCO

2023-10-17T16:03:00-04:00

Francis Kéré has been announced as the architect of a new virtual museum of stolen cultural artifacts for UNESCO. The project will exhibit 3D versions of the objects while at the same time elevating the voices and narratives of the global communities from which they were taken.

Renderings released along with its announcement show a large transparent dome with gallery spaces lining a Guggenheim-like spiraling central ramp, inspired by the African baobab tree.

Image courtesy of UNESCO/Kéré Architecture

The 52,000 works displayed were digitally rendered using the Stolen Works of Art database of INTERPOL, the international police organization that tracks the trafficking of looted cultural artifacts globally.

Image courtesy of UNESCO/Kéré Architecture

UNESCO says this will become a "tool to raise awareness on the illicit trafficking and the importance of protecting cultural heritage among the relevant authorities, culture professionals, and the general public, notably young generations...

Yale Architecture names new scholarship in honor of Francis Kéré

2023-04-24T12:44:00-04:00

The Yale School of Architecture has just announced a new scholarship named after 2022 Pritzker Prize winner Francis Kéré in the interest of supporting African students at the school as they complete their journey to a career in architecture.

“There are so many aspiring African architects, and with a Yale education, they will be able to excel,” Kéré said. “I am the first African architect to be recognized with a Pritzker, and, thanks to the Francis Kéré Scholarship, I hope there will be many more to come.”

Kéré taught at Yale as a William B. and Charlotte Shepherd Davenport Visiting Professor in 2019 and, more recently, as the prestigious Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor in 2022. He has remained active in the school’s academic community, which he referred to as “welcoming and vibrant” and also a “place to be.”

SoA D...

Francis Kéré, Walter Hood, Do Ho Suh to receive honorary degrees at RISD Commencement

2023-04-14T09:00:00-04:00

This spring’s commencement ceremony at the Rhode Island School of Design will feature a pair of luminaries as last year’s Pritzker Prize winner Francis Kéré will join Walter Hood for the event, which is to be held at Amica Mutual Pavilion on June 3rd.

Both designers will receive honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees alongside artist and Class of 1994 graduate Do Ho Suh. Kéré will be the keynote speaker at the event. Hood, who is not slated to give an address, also spoke at the UC Berkeley CED commencement ceremony in 2020.

The school shares: “A series of exhibitions leading up to Commencement will highlight new work produced by graduating students. Showcasing the work of grad students across 20 disciplines, Grad Show 2023 will be on view at the Rhode Island Convention Center from May 25–June 3.”

Relate on Archinect: Rhode Island School of Design’s architecture faculty gives ‘unequivocal support’ to striking workers

The announcement coincides with an ongoing labor dispute at RISD, with...

Francis Kéré’s Kamwokya Community Centre debuts in Uganda

2022-11-02T10:00:00-04:00

Pritzker Prize winner Francis Kéré’s firm has shared photos of their just-completed Kamwokya Community Centre project in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

Designed for the city’s informal settlement of Kamwokya, the center hosts a variety of activities and educational resources for residents in partnership with its clients, the Ameropa Foundation and Kamwokya Christian Caring Community (KCCC).

Image by Jaime Herraiz. Copyright Kéré Architecture

“We wanted to give a place of quality and beauty to the people of Kamwokya,” Ameropa’s founder Nicole Miesche said. “A place where they could sit down, take a rest from their daily struggle and dream, a place also where the children could play in a safe and clean environment.”

Photo by Iwan Baan

Image by Jaime Herraiz. Copyright Kéré Architecture

Set on a raised platform to protect against flooding, the program includes two well-ventilated, spatially-flexible buildings, a sports field, and separate sanitary facilities. The build...

Mud, the world's ancient building material, deserves to have a bright future

2022-07-21T18:23:00-04:00

Even though the buildings in Sana'a are thousands of years old, they remain "terribly contemporary", says Salma Samar Damluji, co-founder of the Daw'an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation in Yemen. Damluji says it is easy to see why these mud buildings have not lost their appeal – they are well-insulated, sustainable and extremely adaptable for modern use. "It is the architecture of the future," says Damluji.

Yemen’s largest city Sana'a may even supplant Franis Kéré's home country as the world’s leading rammed earth capital, with a host of stunning, UNESCO-protected sites scattered around its Old City area. The material is one of many in an arsenal of alternatives being used to combat high temperatures and reduce global carbon footprints, a scant 5% of which can be attributed to all 54 African nations, as the Pritzker Prize winner pointed out last week in a preview of his own locally-sourced designs for the Triennale di Milano.

Earlier on Archinect: Francis Kéré and others are attempting to muddy up the rising use of concrete in West Africa

Elsewhere in the world, the BBC's Future Planet offers Austrian architect Anna Heringer’s Aga Khan Award-winning METI handmade school design in Bangladesh as a contemporary example of its successful export and application. As she and others pointed out, mud's ability to circumvent the need for more air-conditioning on a warming planet is a huge selling...

Pritzker winner Francis Kéré is on a mission to tackle misconceptions about Africa at the Triennale di Milano

2022-07-14T12:13:00-04:00

Speaking at the Triennale di Milano, which kicks off tomorrow in the Italian finance capital, Francis Kéré lamented the Western notion that his “unknown” home continent is a vast but homogeneous place when in reality, it is comprised of 54 countries and over 1,000 different language traditions.

“Instead of seeing it as a young, dynamic continent, Africa is still seen as a place that needs help,” the 2022 Pritzker Prize winner told Quartz in a recent interview. “If you close your eyes to what matters to your neighbor, then you’ll never really know them.”

The Burkina Faso-born architect, who designed a 40-foot entrance tower and cafe seating area for the Triennale around traditional African gathering customs, said his goal at the exhibition is to introduce some nuance to that misconception via the inclusion of endemic materials and building techniques whose applications represent a massive amount of untapped potential.

Related on Archinect: Mariam Kamara on the higher aspirations of ...

The Moleskine Foundation's latest exhibition features notebooks of artists and architects such as Michael Graves, Carlo Stanga, and 2022 Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré

2022-05-13T17:07:00-04:00

A new book arts exhibition from celebrated notebook maker Moleskine is now on view at One World Trade Center’s One World Observatory, marking the first public exhibition of artwork in the attraction’s seven-year history.

Opened today, the Moleskine Foundation’s Detour New York exhibition features notebooks by the late architect Michael Graves, Italian architect Carlo Stanga, and this year’s Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré.

Carlo Stanga, "I had a dream" (2019). Image courtesy Moleskine Foundation.

According to the foundation, the suite of 75 individual artworks by various creative thinkers “celebrates how blank pages can become a work of art in themselves, providing moments of inspiration and introspection.” The exhibition is separated into five themes: Metamorphosis, Memory, Borders, Journey, and Imagination. Each notebook tells a different story, dream, or “distinctive way of being and relating to the world.”

In Memory, viewers can see this introspection perhaps most espe...

Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré on why his childhood is keeping him motivated

2022-03-22T18:01:00-04:00

I never saw myself connected to this big thing. I was just using my skills to create comfortable spaces and beautiful schools and housing for my people. No, I never dreamed to see this work connected with Pritzker. No, no, never.

NPR’s Michel Martin got the newest Pritzker laureate and recently-named Dakar Goethe Institute designer to harken back to his childhood village in Burkina Faso, which he credited as a strong influence beginning with his educational experiences in darkened classrooms that frequently hovered around 100 degrees.

Recently on Archinect: Francis Kéré named 2022 Pritzker Prize winner

“Being in the village, you're thinking about big buildings, glass and whatever, far away,” Kéré told NPR. “And so in Burkina, that is it. The focus is the Western. But in my case, it's like you just have, you know, a tradition, which is strong, which has skills, which has some great things that I relate to the environment, to the ecology […] but people don't see it [as if] it has a value. And when we started, it cost me a lot of energy to really convince [them]. But a couple of years ago, people started to see that what I'm doing was the good solution.”

Related on Archinect: Francis Kéré and others are attempt...

Francis Kéré named 2022 Pritzker Prize winner

2022-03-15T10:00:00-04:00

Diébédo Francis Kéré has been awarded the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, widely considered one of the industry's highest honors.

"Francis Kéré has found brilliant, inspiring and game-changing ways to answer these questions over the last decades," said the jury citation for the award. "His cultural sensitivity not only delivers social and environmental justice, but guides his entire process, in the awareness that it is the path towards the legitimacy of a building in a community. He knows, from within, that architecture is not about the object but the objective; not the product, but the process."

Born in Gando, Burkina Faso in 1965, Kéré studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. In 2005, while living in Berlin, he set up Kéré Architecture and has since designed a portfolio of notable works, including the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion, installations at Coachella, and a pavilion for the Tip...

Kéré Architecture breaks ground on new Goethe Institute center in Dakar

2022-02-23T15:49:00-05:00

Senegal is taking a big step towards further establishing itself as an architectural capital thanks to Francis Kéré’s design for the Goethe Institute that has officially broken ground in Dakar.

The 56-year-old architect was on hand Wednesday for a ceremony which included German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Goethe Institute’s Carola Lentz.

Exterior view of the Goethe Institute. Rendering by Goethe Institute.

Speaking at the ceremony, the architect mentioned the shared values that both he and the Institute share, stating that his climate-oriented approach to the project was met with an “open and sympathetic” response that encouraged him to “take things further” in a collaborative effort later outlined by Steinmeier.

Architect Francis Kéré, the Senegalese artist Baaba Mal, Senegalese Minister of Town Planning and Public Hygiene Abdoulaye Saydou Sow, and Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Image courtesy Goethe Institute.

“I am optimistic that Africa and E...

Francis Kéré and others are attempting to muddy up the rising use of concrete in West Africa

2021-11-22T15:24:00-05:00

Architects, officials, and villagers confirm the trend: People are discarding traditional materials, mostly mud, in favor of concrete, as soon as they can afford it. As living standards increase making concrete more accessible, some of the world’s hottest, poorest landscapes are rapidly morphing from brown to cinder block grey.

Architects like Francis Kéré have been attempting to buck the trend of using concrete by experimenting with upgraded versions of terrestrial materials like mud bricks that simultaneously provide tools for community-building in developing countries like Burkina Faso.

Facade detail of Kéré Architecture's Burkina Institute of Technology. Photo: Jaime Herraiz.

The ancient material is much more heat-adaptable when compared to concrete, which is increasingly valuable in an area whose number of extreme heat days is expected to rapidly increase over the next three decades due to climate change.

“It’s a matter of time, it’s a matter of belief. It’s a matter of political will,” Kéré, told National Geographic. “But there’s a lot of accumulated knowledge now. In 10 years, you’re going to be surprised by our success.”

Francis Kéré's latest project brings a termite-inspired design to the Kenyan lowlands

2021-07-01T14:56:00-04:00

A new polytechnic training campus has sprung up in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, standing out in the sprawling lowlands region thanks to three terracotta-colored ventilation towers that took their inspiration from termite colonies in the growing East African technology hub.

Image © Kéré Architecture

Located on the banks of Lake Turkana, the new Startup Lions campus will provide education and jobs training for young Kenyans, the largest demographic group driving population growth in the country expected to double in size by 2050.

Image © Startup Lions

Kéré Architecture is responsible for the campus plan, which includes housing and workstation spaces for 200 students at the ICT facility. Outdoor classrooms shaded by a grove of pergolas and the profile of thee large cooling towers that will mitigate the Valley’s extreme heat and harmful desert sand, making learning easier in a scheme aimed at collaboration.

Image © Kéré Architecture

The German-based firm has been very active in African dev...

Archinect's Virtual Event Guide for the week of Jan 27-Feb 3

2021-01-27T14:32:00-05:00

This week's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address race, urban planning, sustainability and the future of cities.

Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here.

Are you an expert in an arena that's especially important right now? Let us know if you would like to work with Archinect to host an online event.

MLK Annual Lecture, Melvin Mitchell, FAIA
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PDT
Melvin L. Mitchell, author of Build Something Big! One Million New Affordable Housing Units, 2020-2030 and Black MD’s, Lawyers…and Architects, will be giving the MLK Annual Lecture for USC.
Click here to attend and/or register

Richard Rothstein: THE COLOR OF LAW: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
Richard Rothstein is the author of THE COLOR OF LAW: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregate...

Francis Kéré fashions arts pavilion from pine logs

2019-07-12T15:12:00-04:00

Architect Francis Kéré has completed work on Xylem, a new pavilion at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana that is fashioned from a collection of tree trunks.

The 2,100-square-foot pavilion, described as "a quiet place to contemplate nature" by the organizers, draws inspiration from the wooden and straw toguna structures in West Africa's Dogon communities. In their native context, togunas are seen as sacred structures and are often located at the center of each village where they host communal discussions and debates. Designed with squat proportions that force visitors to sit down when inhabiting the space, the traditional structures play a vital role in the governance and everyday life of their respective villages.

Interior view of the pavilion, which is made up of from ponderosa and lodgepole pine logs. Image courtesy of Iwan Baan, Tippet Rise Art Center.

For the pavilion in Montana, Kéré has created a lively and textured space built entirely from the logs of ponderosa and lodge...

A closer look at Francis Kéré's colorful Coachella installation

2019-04-17T20:56:00-04:00

With the second weekend of Coachella underway, many festival-goers have already flooded social media with their experiences and favorite Instagrammable installations. Laid across the Coachella Valley are mesmerizing installations by architects and designers whose work blends art, architecture, and design exploration. One project in particular who has kept people buzzing is Francis Kéré's towered installation, Sarbalé Ke. Founder of Kéré Architecture Kéré was inspired by the Burkinabè baobab tree, a significant tree in African culture. Kéré reflected on the tree's cultural significance and used that as inspiration to further explore themes surrounding the topic of a village. The project's name Sarbalé Ke translates to "the House of Celebration" in Moore, a language spoke in various parts of Burkina Faso. Twelve baobab towers are placed around each other each varying in height and color.

Sarbalé Ke by Francis Kéré at the Coach...

Francis Kéré, Office Kovacs and others unveil installations at Coachella

2019-04-15T18:18:00-04:00

Weekend one of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has concluded. Amongst the food trucks run by celebrated chefs, and sets by Grammy artists such as Kacey Musgraves, architects like Francis Kéré were busy activating the polo field with large-scale art installations.

The Berlin-based Burinabé architect, who has designed the highly-coveted Serpentine pavilion, revealed a new project this week. Inspired by the baobab tree, native to his home country, Kéré and the Coachella team built 12 conical structures, some as tall as 60 feet, that provided shade to festival-goers.

Thanks to Paul Clemente, the festival's art director, the art at Coachella has continued to grow in scale as the festival has become an increasingly popular place for architects and artists to showcase their work.

“You don’t have to bring people to architecture, you can bring architecture to people,” Andrew Kovacs told the New York Times of his interest in Coachella. Mr. Kovacs, who designed a collection of...

Coachella 2019 lineup announced with installations from Francis Kéré, Office Kovacs, and more

2019-01-03T13:40:00-05:00

The highly anticipated lineup for the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been announced, with Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, and Ariana Grande headlining the two-weekend experience. A solid mix of rock, indie, hip hop, and electronic artists will be joining to round out the rest of the stages.

While music acts like Solange and Weezer woo the crowds, concertgoers will also be treated to large-scale installations by architects and artists responsible for the latter half of Coachella's proper name. Years past have brought dynamic works by designers like Edoardo Tresoldi and Bureau Spectacular, among others.

This year, over half a dozen large-scale installations will be the center of attention at Coachella. New presenters for 2019 include familiar names such as the Berlin-based Burinabé architect Francis Kéré, local studio Office Kovacs, and painter Sophia Enriquez. Returning participants such as the absurdist art duo Dedo Vabo, the experiential designers Poetic Kineti...

Meditative pavilion designed by Francis Kéré for Montana's Tippet Rise Art Center soon to break ground

2018-12-13T14:33:00-05:00

Montana's sprawling, 12,000 acre sculpture and music park will soon begin construction on a permanent pavilion designed by the Berlin-based Burinabé architect Diébédo Francis Kéré. The commission for Tippet Rise Art Center, which will kick off their 2019 Summer concert season, is being funded by the Tippet Rise Fund of the Sidney E. Frank Foundation, which is also helping to construct a new school in Kéré's hometown of Gando.

The wooden pavilion is derived from Kéré's 2017 Serpentine Pavilion and his 2015 canopy structure for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. It is inspired by the traditional togunas of the Dogon culture of Mali and will be constructed of locally and sustainably sourced ponderosa and lodgepole pine. Described by the architect as creating a "rain of light" effect, the structure will offer visitors a space to gather, contemplate the views, and/or meditate.

Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School.

“At Tippet Rise, we want the buildings to have the material and formal int...

Francis Kéré will design a canopied log pavilion for the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana

2018-05-17T16:29:00-04:00

Francis Kéré is the latest architect commissioned to design a new permanent pavilion on the grounds of the 10,260-acre Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana. Nestled in a cluster of aspen and cottonwood trees on the banks of a flowing stream, the design of the 1,900 square-foot pavilion is derived from Kéré's 2017 Serpentine Pavilion and his 2015 canopy structure for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Kéré's design pays tribute to the traditional sacred toguns of the Dogun people in Mali, which are shelters made from ornamented wooden pillars that are carved with representations of one's ancestors, and a roof of layers of wood and millet straw.

Exterior view of the pavilion. Credit: Francis Kéré.

Circular aerial bridge. Credit: Francis Kéré.

Built from locally sourced logs of ponderosa pine and lodegepole pine, the Tippet Rise pavilion will be a round structure connected to a circular aerial bridge that spans the stream. Touching the ground at only a few points to preserve the landscape...

Archinect's Front Runners for the 2018 Pritzker Prize

2018-03-06T09:00:00-05:00

The 2018 Pritzker Prize will be announced tomorrow, on Wednesday, March 7th at 10 AM EST. Speculation surrounding who will take architecture's top honor this year has been going on for some time, with discussions quite active in our forum and elsewhere. After last year's stunner, in which three architects (a first!) from a relatively unknown practice took the prize, we are all left wondering what direction the 2018 jury will go in. Will they continue to move away from the starchitects (usually white and male) once favored by the prize, as they have in recent years? Will they continue to place a premium on those whose work addresses pressing social issues such as housing or the environment? And, will they once again praise collaboration by awarding multiple architects, or will it return, as is usually the case, to a solo prize?

Either way, while we wait for the results, it is fun to place some bets. The following is a list of architects that have a good shot at the historically, fair...

Kéré-designed Serpentine Pavilion extends opening due to popular demand

2017-09-25T13:42:00-04:00

Due to popular demand, the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion will now remain open for an additional six weeks, through November 19th. This year's installation was designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré and inspired by the community tree of his native Burkina Faso. The award-winning architect from Gando responded to this year's brief with a bold, innovative structure, engineered by AECOM, that brings his characteristic sense of light and life to the lawns of Kensington Gardens.

Central to the Kéré's design was the shift from day to night, in which the Pavilion becomes a beacon of light. AECOM worked closely with Kéré to envision the mood and ambience from multiple points of view to craft a subtle and inviting glow. The end result: daylight streams into and through the structure during the day, while at night artificial lights reverse the process, flowing out of the structure and inviting people to come and visit.

Amy Koerbel, the Regional Director at AECOM, commented: “This year’s program has been...

Diébédo Francis Kéré announced as Brunner Prize winner by American Academy of Arts and Letters

2017-03-29T19:20:00-04:00

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the recipients of its 2017 architecture awards. Intended to honor architects whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction, this year's winners were chosen from a group of 27 individuals and practices nominated by members of the Academy. On the jury, were Elizabeth Diller, Henry N. Cobb, Peter Eisenman, Kenneth Frampton, Hugh Hardy, Steven Holl, Thom Mayne, James Polshek, Robert A.M. Stern, Billie Tsien, and Tod Williams.

The top prize, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, is given to a preeminent architect from any country who has made a significant contribution to architecture as art. The 2017 recipient is Diébédo Francis Kéré, who is having quite the year. He was recently announced as this years designer of the Serpentine Pavilion as well. Kéré is known for his socially driven and sustainable approach to architecture. Based in Berlin and Gando, his hometown in Burkina Faso, Kéré has brought his co...

Diébédo Francis Kéré announced as Serpentine Pavilion 2017 designer

2017-02-21T11:36:00-05:00

" Diébédo Francis Kéré, the award-winning architect from Gando, Burkino Faso, has been commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion 2017, responding to the brief with a bold, innovative structure that brings his characteristic sense of light and life to the lawns of Kensington Gardens. "

Diébédo Francis Kéré, Photo by Erik Jan OuwerkerkSerpentine Galleries have revealed that this year's pavilion will be designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré. The pavilion's design responds to the changeable British climate, whilst being influenced Kéré's ecological design ethos which drives his Berlin-based practice.

Last year's design by BIG drew in huge crowds, and acted as a discussion piece throughout the summer.

Diébédo Francis Kéré, Photo by Erik Jan Ouwerkerk