Diébédo Francis Kéré founded his architecture practice Kéré Architecture, in Berlin, Germany in 2005, after a journey in which he started advocating for the building of quality educational architecture in his home country of Burkina Faso. Deprived of proper classrooms and learning conditions as a child, and having faced the same reality as the majority of children in his country, his first works aimed at bringing tangible solutions to the issues faced by the community.
Combining his determination to provide the region with good architecture, and the long tradition of collaborative work with the use of local materials and resources, the Gando Primary School (2001, Gando, Burkina Faso,) became the first materialization of his ideology that remained firm for the rest of his career. As a result of the project’s success, Kéré was recognized with the Aga Khan Award in 2004. This was followed by the official establishment of his practice and a series of projects through the African continent, including schools, medical facilities, and community and cultural spaces.
