In 2004, the project of a primary school in Gando, an obscure village in Burkina Faso on the border of Togo and Ghana won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Planners have their sights on the local designer, Francis Kéré. He is an urban architect who graduated from the Berlin Technische Universität started this first project in 1999 when he was still a student. It is interesting to see how the architect transposes TU’s ecological rationalism to the climatic and social conditions of Gando. But his efforts are not limited to architecture. With the help of his association Schulbausteine für Gando (Bricks for the Gando School), he tries to supply educational structures to his people to combat illiteracy and offer perspectives for a better future. His objective is to promote the direct involvement of local populations in the development process.

Francis Kéré lives between Berlin, where he opened his agency and teaches sustainable architecture at TU, and Burkina Faso where he pursues his innovative designs. In Africa he builds schools and equipment which are always simple and economic, such as the Gando Women’s Centre, which is under construction. At Ouagadougou he is conducting discussions for the creation of an Africa opera house. The projects of the Bamako National Park in Mali and the Dapong Training Centre bear his mark. His sphere of action takes him to Yemen, Spain and India. As well as his teaching and research activities, he goes round the world to run workshops and conferences on ecology in Madrid, Johannesburg, New York and Oslo. And one of his compatriots affirms: Diébédo Francis Kéré’s story is edifying and passionate. He is a man with dynamism and creative potential, developed by his studies and enhanced by a heightened sense of responsibility, as he has opened new perspectives for a whole continent.”

Knowing western culture how do you go about reaching an acceptable level of architecture in Africa?
The simplest way is not to be afraid and to concentrate on the possibilities in Africa with traditional materials and the potential of the local workforce. Don’t be led by the idea that Africans should live in round houses. I want to change that and interpret what I have learned in Europe for the needs of Africa. With this approach one can recreate a genuine architecture for Africa.  

What can be retained from European architecture which might be applicable to Africa?
That is difficult to say. Don’t forget that climate conditions are very different. We have to design houses which don’t get hot. We can use European designs. We can above all learn not to be an individualistic architect struggling to achieve beautiful ideas. We also have to work with people. To persuade them. To involve them.

Do you want to involve people so that they are happy in the act of construction?
We Africans may be underdeveloped but we have human resources. If we organise ourselves with the little that we do have, we can create a constructed world which is not afraid to be compared with Europe. And if architecture responds to the needs of inhabitants and is accepted by them, that means that we have to involve them in the initial stages. I can see a real opportunity for Africa. Our Gando school project was so successful that the number of pupils literally exploded. We have now built an extension to accommodate a total of 700 pupils. This is a huge achievement when we realise that Burkina Faso has an 80% illiteracy rate.

Which simple techniques do you advise, especially for the Gando school?
To protect the buildings from the heat I advise a compact building which regulates its heat and double canopy roof. That is, a large suspended ceiling in clay, separated by a layer of air, a lightly sloped cloth roof. This must overhang by at least two metres to act as a sun shade and to protect the walls. Thanks to the open façade air constantly circulates to cool the building without consuming energy. And we used laterite, a material found locally to economise on the foundations. The class rooms are in a linear lay out and are surrounded by bearing walls in blocks of compressed clay and bound in concrete. The structure was made in situ in steel welded by the village blacksmiths. Each building should have an identifying technical novelty. The act of building is a means of development by education and a communication tool between all countries.