Schools with naturally temperate and ventilated classrooms, health infrastructures promoting well-being, and community spaces inspired by nature… Thanks to his fundamentally locally anchored and sustainable creations, which can be seen in Africa that in the United States and Europe, Burkinabe architect Diébédo Francis Kéré won the Pritzker Prize, the most prestigious in his field, this year.


Here are the main principles of his work and how to adopt them.

Prioritize local materials

For the sake of sustainability, reduction of transport-related pollution, but also cost savings, we try as much as possible to use local raw materials, which will also have the advantage of blending into the landscape and the existing building.

For a primary school built in Gando, his native village, Francis Kéré had thus opted for walls in red clay extracted directly on the site of the establishment then pressed into bricks.

To apply this precept, we can for example set our sights on raw stone from French quarries (granite, sandstone, slate, marble) and wood from local forests managed in an eco-responsible way (walnut, oak, beech), in order to to favor short circuits or, why not, recover old materials (terracotta tiles, tiles, structural parts, bricks, etc.) from old homes or abandoned factories.

Save natural resources

While the ecological transition has become the major challenge of this century, building passive buildings, even with positive energy, is becoming a necessity.

With wind towers that evacuate hot air, clay or laterite bricks that help retain interior coolness, cross ventilation that provides natural aeration, and shade chambers instead of windows, the structures designed by Francis Kéré offer a real alternative to mechanical air conditioning, for optimal comfort without wasting energy.

Interstices in the roof also allow light to filter through in order to illuminate as much as possible thanks to the sun, while rainwater harvesting systems are used to irrigate the mango tree plantations.

In this spirit, we rely on insulating building materials to limit heat loss, we promote natural light via bay windows and a well thought-out orientation, and we recover as much as possible of precipitation to water your garden and vegetable patch.

A tribute to the beauty of nature

With constructions whose shapes are inspired by African trees (baobab, palaver tree) and colored panels that evoke the colors of sunrises and sunsets, the architecture of Francis Kéré also pays homage to the splendor of the environment.

In order to recreate the lost link with its roots, we focus on organic design, characterized by soft curves, rounded shapes, vegetable colors and raw materials, which give pride of place to biomorphic elements such as wood, wicker and linen.

Living together at the center of concerns

If the public buildings designed by Francis Kéré emphasize the community aspect in order to promote moments of exchange, especially between students, this philosophy can also be adapted in private housing.

We will thus make sure to reinforce the convivial aspect of the living rooms, such as the living room and the kitchen, but also the outdoor spaces where we spend most of the summer season.

For this, we declutter our interiors of the superfluous, we have comfortable seats that invite sharing, and we create a pleasant environment (fireplace to warm up in winter, shaded terrace for summer) where it is good to rest.

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