In a world where architects are building projects in the most diverse contexts not without controversies Kr contributes to the debate by incorporating local, national, regional, and global dimensions in a very personal balance of grassroots experience, academic quality, low tech, high tech, and truly sophisticated multiculturalism. "You have people just sitting in an office with a computer designing and shaping our world. You can see more examples of Dibdo Francis Kr's works in the gallery. From a village to a nation state, you need to look around the country and ask, 'Where do you have local and natural stone and then we go to source it, in order (not to borrow) a style from somewhere else. Since completing the school in his native village, Kr has pursued the ethos and the method of working with local craft and skills to elevate not only the civic life of small villages but soon also of national deliberations in legislative buildings. But people are dedicated to these projects, they feel connected to them. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. In a world in crisis, amidst changing values and generations, he reminds us of what has been, and will undoubtedly continue to be a cornerstone of architectural practice: a sense of community and narrative quality, which he himself is so able to recount with compassion and pride. It is not because you are rich that you should waste material. More educational projects followed. They are tied to the ground on which they sit and to the people who sit within them. Another career highlight is Kr's design for the National Assembly of Burkina Faso, which was commissioned to replace the former structure destroyed during the Burkinab uprising in 2014 and is unfortunately currently on hold due to domestic political turmoil. On a larger scale and more architecturally ambitious than his educational work, it will consist of a stepped and pyramidal overall form, and host a 127-person assembly hall on the interior, while encouraging informal gatherings on its greenery filled exterior. Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users. "It doesn't take a miracle; it's possible. Buildings for the future: Africa's most anticipated architecture projects. I am hoping to change the paradigm, push people to dream and undergo risk. Over and over, he has, in a sense, returned to his roots. The oldest son of the village chief and the first in his community to attend school, the architects first sense of architecture stemmed from his childhood classroom that lacked ventilation and light, on one hand, and from the little illuminated yet safe space where his grandmother would sit and tell stories, on another. Ad Choices, Born in Burkina Faso, the 56-year-old architect has amassed major awards for his sustainable designs in buildings from Mali to China, Brad Pitt Buys Historic Seaside Bungalow for $40 Million, This 350-Square-Foot Silver Lake Shed Became an Expressive ADU, Architect Germane Barnes Mines the Nexus of Race and Design, The winner of the 2021 Rome Prize talks with, Inside Renzo Pianos Latest Designa Residential Tower Built on New Land in Monaco, The reclamation project will transform six hectares of sea into coastland, while providing public access to the best views along the water, These 9 Design Museums Are the Best in the World, Featuring a mix of traditional and contemporary exhibitions, youll want to add these institution to your bucket list of places to visit, Step Inside 8 Refined Farmhouses That Are Undeniably Modern. Francis Kr's temporary pavilion in London's Hyde Park, a prestigious assignment given to a different world-famous architect every year. Additional awards granted over the years include the Cit de lArchitecture et du Patrimoines Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2009), BSI Swiss Architectural Award (2010); the Global Holcim Awards Gold (2012, Zurich, Switzerland), Schelling Architecture Award (2014); Arnold W Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts & Letters (2017); and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture (2021). After Burkina Faso's national assembly was destroyed during civil unrest in 2014, the architect was asked to envision a replacement in the country's capital, Ouagadougou. The project proved to be a springboard for his career and still guides his ethos today. His Gando Primary School is an excellent example of his inspired approach to sustainable design and was created with the local climate in mind, Gando Primary School was constructed from local materials and is designed to keep students naturally cool without the need for air-conditioning, The National Assembly of Burkina Faso was commissioned to replace the former building which was destroyed during a political uprising, Construction of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso is currently on hold but once complete it will include greenery on its roof, informal meeting areas, and some shaded market areas, The Lyce Schorge Secondary School in Burkina Faso consists of nine modules arranged around a central courtyard, protecting the central space from wind and dust, The Lyce Schorge Secondary School in Burkina Faso focuses on passive ventilation, open airy spaces, and the use of local materials, The Benin National Assembly's stunning wooden design references the West African tradition of people meeting under a tree to make community decisions, The Burkina Institute of Technology is designed to be easily expandable if the school needs to grow, The Surgical Clinic and Health Centre in Burkina Faso provides surgical, maternity, and in-patient care. So, when they have more money to spend, they try to look for other materials.". In each case, his work is as much about process as design. Casting mud like concrete and embracing local materials over imported ones, Kr proposes a vision of architecture that both strengthens communities and responds to the climate crisis. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2018) and the American Institute of Architects (2012) and a chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2009). Beyond creating for the African continent, his built works also include structures in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. "And I try -- even without knowing it -- to do the same with my architecture.". This is the case of his two projects underway for the Benin National Assembly, in advanced construction, and for the Burkina Faso National Assembly, temporarily halted by the current political situation in the country. My days were filled with securing food and water, but also simply being together, talking together, building houses together. I grew up in a community where there was no kindergarten, but where the community was your family. In both cases, Kr said, the challenge was to create uniquely African expressions of democracy, memory and identity. After success in his home country, the architect opened his firm Kr Architecture in 2005, with offices in Berlin and Burkina Faso. In this, he provides a narrative in which architecture can become a source of continued and lasting happiness and joy. As with previous winners, he will be awarded a $100,000 grant and a bronze medal. The judges highlighted his ingenious approach to sustainability, which embraces passive techniques like natural ventilation and lighting to provide comfort in challenging conditions, as well as his efforts to improve educational facilities in his homeland Burkina Faso, elsewhere in Africa and beyond. Most importantly, perhaps, was that the village now has a solid, well-ventilated space where students could learn. Though Kr has since designed bigger projects, including large-scale campuses and two national parliaments, his approach remains grounded in principles established in Gando. He has continuously pursued this task in ways at once highly respectful of place and tradition and yet transformational in what can be offered, as in the primary school in Gando which served as an example to so many even beyond the borders of Burkina Faso, and to which he later added a complex of teachers housing and a library. Normally with public facilities here, nobodys caring for them, Kr told AD in 2014, in reference to structures in his home country. In the Serpentine pavilion, for example, he successfully translated into a universal visual language and in a particularly effective way, a long-forgotten essential symbol of primordial architecture worldwide: the tree. In a world in crisis, amidst changing values and generations, he reminds us of what has been, and will undoubtedly continue to be a cornerstone of architectural practice: a sense of community and narrative quality, which he himself is so able to recount with compassion and pride. With this prize, the Burkina Faso-born architect will receive $100,000 and a bronze medallion. His buildings, for and with communities, are directly of those communities in their making, their materials, their programs, and their unique characters. "Everyone took care of you and the entire village was your playground. This project awarded him the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004, and led to the inception of his own practice Kr Architecture, in Berlin, Germany, in 2005. Should it be ambitious in order to inspire change? "The more local materials you use, the better you can promote the local economy and (build) local knowledge, which also makes people proud.". Kr's serene design at the National Park of Mali in Bamako, Mali. He has shown us how architecture today can reflect and serve needs, including the aesthetic needs, of people throughout the world. The Lyce Schorge Secondary School in Palogo, Burkina Faso. This ancient technique maintains cool interior climates in parts of Africa where temperatures routinely top 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Born in Burkina Faso to parents who insisted that their son be educated, Francis Kr went on to study architecture in Berlin. And theres no bigger award than the annual Pritzker Architecture Prize. As such, Tuesday's Pritzker Prize announcement is not only a nod of approval for him, but for "vernacular" architecture -- a term used to describe designs that directly respond to local climates, materials and building traditions -- itself. All images are each office/photographer mentioned. The end result was a beautiful structure the community could be proud of. For too many people in developing countries, the problem is extreme heat, rather than cold. He returned to Burkina Faso, where he flourished by providing his community with much-needed infrastructure. And they are perceived by others to be the best, without taking into account that local materials can be the solution to the climate crisis and can be our best alternative in terms of socio-economic (development). What is the role of architecture in contexts of extreme scarcity? The 2017 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion by Dibdo Francis Kr in London. Who said living in the countryside cant be chic? "How do you make a project represent a nation? Francis Kr has found brilliant, inspiring, and game-changing ways to answer these questions over the last decades. But its not just on his home continent that the architect has found success. The Startup Lions Campus in Kenya by Kr Architecture. He has shown us how locality becomes a universal possibility. At the Benga Riverside Residential Community in Mozambique, Kr incorporated existing baobab trees, shrubs and native grasses in his design, offering shade and protecting houses from dusty winds. In this he provides a narrative in which architecture can become a source of continued and lasting happiness and joy.". Following this success, other primary, secondary, postsecondary, and medical facilities followed throughout Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique, and Uganda. Francis Krs work also reminds us of the necessary struggle to change unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, as we strive to provide adequate buildings and infrastructure for billions in need. Rays of sun filter into buildings, courtyards, and intermediary spaces overcoming harsh midday conditions to offer places of serenity or gathering, adds the official statement of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Yet, he sees a growing divide between design and construction, believing that many of today's architects are alienated from the processes that bring their visions to life. What is the right approach to the practice when working against all odds? The 44th Pritzker Prize ceremony, honoring 2022 Laureate, Dibdo Francis Kr, will be held at the Great Hall of the newly opened Marshall Building, The London School of Economics and Political Science (London, United Kingdom), designed by Grafton Architects, led by Farrell and McNamara. Francis Kr Receives the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, All rights reserved. "Hand-crafting, and cutting or putting materials together, was something that fascinated me," he said. Kr was born in 1965 in Gando, Burkina Faso, as the eldest son of the village chief where he grew up with no electricity or access to clean drinking water. At the same time, he has no problem incorporating the best possible type of top-down process in his devotion to advanced architectural solutions. Francis Krs work is, by its essence and its presence, fruit of its circumstances. In 2017, Kr designed Londons Serpentine Pavilion. But despite collaborating closely with local craftspeople, Kr said he faced resistance over his choice of materials. Wed love to hear your feedback here. The 2022 laureate of architectures highest honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize is Dibdo Francis Kr, known as Francis Kr, Burkina Faso-born architect, educator, social activist, receiver of the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and designer of the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion. How architect Mariam Kamara is masterminding a sustainable future for Niger, Kr's growing international profile has invited increasingly monumental commissions. Stay tuned to ArchDailys coverage of the Pritzker Prize. But while these national-scale projects differ in size from the architect's schools and health centers, his approach remains rooted in localism. 2022 Cond Nast. After completing his education, Kr couldve easily done what so many architects before him had: remained in Europe to focus on skyscrapers, museums, and other lucrative civic buildings. Kr will officially be named Pritzker laureate at a ceremony in London later this year. Since the world began to pay attention to the remarkable work and life story of Francis Kr, he has served as a singular beacon in architecture. "This is the case of his two projects underway for the Benin National Assembly, in advanced construction, and for the Burkina Faso National Assembly, temporarily halted by the current political situation in the country. He has shown us how locality becomes a universal possibility. It was announced today that the 2022 Pritzker Prize was awarded to the 56-year-old architect, Dibdo Francis Kr. Adam scours the globe from his home in Spain in order to bring the best of innovative architecture and sustainable design to the pages of New Atlas. Should it be modest and risk succumbing to adverse circumstances? He moved away at a young age to become the only child in his family to attend school. Architectural Digest may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. We are interlinked and concerns in climate, democracy, and scarcity are concerns for us all. Francis Kr, 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize Winner. His first building, Gando Primary School in 2001, was built by and for the locals, who crafted every part of the establishment by hand, guided by the architects inventive forms of indigenous materials and modern engineering. 2022 Pritzker Prize winner pioneers art of low-tech sustainability, Dibdo Francis Kr has been declared the 2022 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Younger, Kr had vowed to one day make schools better in extreme climates, allowing for true teaching, learning, and excitement, and in 1998, he established the Kr Foundation to fundraise and advocate for a childs right to a comfortable classroom. Two years later, the architect completed his first permanent structure in the Americas with a bundled pine log pavilion (made from dead trees) in rural Fishtail, Montana. With the selection of Dibdo Francis Kr (a 2020 AD100 debut), the Pritzker committee continues to embrace that mission, with newfound attention to sustainability, both in terms of environment and community. In the two decades since completing his breakout project in Gando, Kr has realized plans for a village library, housing for teachers and a 2008 extension that significantly increased the school's capacity. Architect Dibdo Francis Kr, winner of the 2022 Pritzker Prize. Sustainability for a great majority of the world is not preventing undesirable energy loss so much as undesirable energy gains. ArchDaily 2008-2022. In fact, for the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion, the architect imagined a structure that takes its shape from a tree, with a detached roof and disconnected yet curved walls formed by triangular indigo modules, the color representing strength in his culture and more personally, a blue boubou garment worn by the architect as a child. Thee National Park of Mali, by Dibdo Francis Kr. "I grew up in a community where there was no kindergarten, but where community was your family," explained Kr. Frank Gehrys most recognizable works, such as his famous Bilbao Guggenheim, came one decade after his 1989 Pritzker. Indeed, it is to architecture what the Nobel Prize is to literature. For many architects, being distinguished with awards is a mandatory stepping stone to more prestigious commissions. Pei, Norman Foster, and Tadao Ando, to name a few. Or is modesty the only way to be pertinent and achieve results? Recognized for empowering and transforming communities through the process of architecture, Kr, the first black architect to ever obtain this award, works mostly in areas charged with constraints and adversity, using local materials and building contemporary facilities whose value exceeds the structure itself, serving and stabilizing the future of entire communities. The Lyce Schorge Secondary School, also in Burkina Faso, builds on the design principles set out in the Gando Primary School and once again focuses on simple and sensible approaches to the local conditions, such as passive cooling, the creation of open airy spaces, and the use of local materials. Village Opera, a cultural project currently being constructed in Laongo, Burkina Faso. We are currently in Beta version and updating this search on a regular basis. He has drawn from his European architectural formation and work, combining them with the traditions, needs, and customs of his country. In response, he developed an ad-hoc, highly performative and expressive architectural vocabulary: double roofs, thermal mass, wind towers, indirect lighting, cross ventilation and shade chambers (instead of conventional windows, doors, and columns) have not only become his core strategies but have actually acquired the status of built dignity. Pritzker Prize 2022: Francis Kr becomes first African to win 'Nobel of architecture'. Dibdo Francis Kr has been declared the 2022 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious award in architecture. The architect never forgot the experience of being required to learn in an overcrowded, hot building that lacked ventilation and daylight alongside over 100 classmates, and he vowed to one day make a better school. I remember the room where my grandmother would sit and tell stories with a little light, while we would huddle close to each other and her voice inside the room enclosed us, summoning us to come closer and form a safe place. All rights reserved. After traveling further for his education and eventually graduating as an architect in Berlin he continues to split his time between Germany and his birthplace to this day Kr eventually returned home to make good on his vow and build his village a new school. He has developed a sensitive, bottom-up approach in its embrace of community participation. He raises fundamental questions of the meaning of permanence and durability of construction in a context of constant technological changes and of use and re-use of structures. Raising funds for the school from overseas, the architect returned to his village with plans for a contemporary and sustainable 5,600-square-foot facility. What links these two works of architecture is Krs use of indigenous materials, most notably clay, which he used to make thick walls. Since its founding in 1979, the Pritzker has generally been awarded to familiar celebrity starchitects. In recent years, the jury of experts have refocused their gaze on lesser-knownpractices around the world, socially conscious firms championing design as a catalystfor thegreater good. The designs of this years laureate span from the Startup Lions Campus in Kenya (which was named an AD 2022 Works of Wonder) to a series of teachers housing units in Burkina Faso. This was my first sense of architecture.". Our website, archdigest.com, offers constant original coverage of the interior design and architecture worlds, new shops and products, travel destinations, art and cultural events, celebrity style, and high-end real estate as well as access to print features and images from the AD archives. Praised for the gifts he has created through his work, gifts that go beyond the realm of the architecture discipline, the acclaimed architect is present equally in Burkina Faso and Germany, professionally and personally. The school consists of nine modules arranged around a central courtyard, protecting the space from wind and dust. His curvilinear SKF-RTL Children Learning Centre in Kenya, meanwhile, was built from compressed earth bricks that were produced on-site. Everyone took care of you and the entire village was your playground. A poetic expression of light is consistent throughout Krs works. Most of his spare time is spent dabbling in music, tinkering with old Macintosh computers and trying to keep his even older VW bus on the road. You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! courtesy Francis Kere/Pritzker Architecture Prize. Speaking to CNN shortly after hearing the news, he credited his success to his community in Gando. And we need to be aware that young professionals who (spend time) on construction sites, and really see how materials are put together, will have a different approach to design than those who just design on their computers.". Announced today by Tom Pritzker, Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, Francis Kr is the 51st winner of the award founded in 1979, succeeding Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. The stepped facade of his pyramidical design offers both public space and a message of democratic openness, though the project remains on hold in the aftermath of, Construction of another Kr's national assemblies, in neighboring Benin, is however underway. On Tuesday, organizers of the Pritzker Prize, often dubbed the "Nobel of architecture," revealed Kr as its 2022 laureate. He raised the money by fundraising internationally and made sure that locals were hired and given training. "Sometimes the Western world -- and how it communicates -- makes things in the West (appear to) be the best. Take, for instance, his recently completed Startup Lions Campus, an education center in northeast Kenya whose distinctive towers both aid ventilation and mimic the region's termite mounds, rooting the structure in its surroundings. "Let's say 90% of people in Burkina Faso use clay, but they see it as a 'poor person's material.' 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. As such, the world eagerly awaits to see how 2022 Pritzker Prize laureate Dibdo Francis Krs mind will continue molding the made environment in the years to come. Knowing the village had no access to electricity or air conditioning, he proposed strategically placed windows that allow indirect sunlight to enter while generating airflow that serves as natural ventilation. The school, Gando Primary School, is a fine example of his approach to architecture that puts special focus on the local conditions. In Krs practice, architecture is rooted in place insofar as people see themselves in the buildings they enter. He is a humanitarian, a man with an architectural vocabulary that spans the globe while staying singularly focused on the needs of his home village. "There's a big disconnection," Kr said. But more significantly, perhaps, is that his name will now be included in the same echelon as past Pritzker winners: Philip Johnson, James Stirling, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Oscar Niemeyer, I.M. Kr achieved just that, becoming an architect and completing his first building, Gando Primary School, in 2001. Twenty years later, Kr moved to Germany, where he eventually studied at at the Technical University of Berlin and graduated in 2004 with a degree in architecture. He was born in a remote village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, which is one of the world's poorest countries. "This is not just a prize for myself," he said on the phone from Berlin, Germany, where he headquartered his firm, Kr Architecture. Its sustainable design includes solar panels and the collection of rainwater to irrigate the landscape, The Startup Lions Campus is an information and communication technologies campus in Kenya is defined by its tall ventilation towers that help naturally cool the interior.
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