Diébédo Francis Kéré has become the first African and 51st recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s most prestigious award.
Kéré, 56, is famed for building schools, housing, health facilities and civic building across Africa, most notably in his homeland of Burkina Faso as well as Benin, Mali, and Sudan.
On hearing the news of his award, Kéré described himself as ‘the happiest man on the planet’.
Tom Pritzker, Chairman of the Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the award, described the 2022 laureate as ‘equally architect and servant’ who has improved ‘the lives and experiences of countless citizens in a region of the world that is at times forgotten’.
The Jury Citation praised Kéré’s work for its sense of ‘community’ and ‘narrative quality’ adding that through his compassion he ‘provides a narrative in which architecture can become a source of continued and lasting happiness and joy’.
Kéré first rose to prominence in 2001 for his design of a primary school in Gando village, his birthplace, for which he was awarded the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The project was a very personal one for him, having left Gando at the age of 7 to attend school in Tenkodogo, owing to the fact that Gando did not have a school.
Other of his notable projects include Geneva’s International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Benga Riverside School in Tete, Mozambique, and the Centre for Health and Social Welfare in Laongo, Burkina Faso.
In 2017, he became the first African chosen to design the Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park, London, an honour awarded to a different architect each year.
Kéré is based in Berlin, Germany and is a visiting professor at both Harvard and Yale Universities. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the American Institute of Architects, and a chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Pictures of some of Kéré’s works can be found here.