Creating an educational setting is a specific and sensitive task. Merging children's safety and learning optimization requirements with an aesthetic appeal and solid concept can birth some of the most beautiful, unique projects around. One common configuration is the elliptical or circular school. A circular, more specifically ringlike educational setting can suggest a sense of protectiveness and safety with the construction of the embracing surrounding membrane. It is also a practical setup that envelopes multiple functions while linking them, consequently allowing interactive instances through the central courtyard.
As architecture navigates a rapidly changing world shaped by ecological urgency, social transformation, and technological acceleration, the notion of intelligence is shifting. No longer confined to individual cognition or artificial computation, intelligence can emerge from cultural memory, collective practices, and adaptive systems. In this broader sense, architecture becomes a field of convergence, where natural, artificial, and social intelligences intersect to offer new ways of designing and building.
Vernacular traditions embed generations of environmental knowledge, often transmitted through materials, construction techniques, and spatial logics finely tuned to local conditions; participatory platforms expand decision-making to wider communities to take part in shaping their environments, redistributing agency in the design process; and computational processes simulate and respond to complex data in real time bringing the capacity to analyse, simulate, and respond to complex variables — whether environmental, social, or behavioural — offering new forms of adaptability.
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has revealed the winning projects for the Holcim Awards 2023 competition, as well as the silver, bronze, and acknowledgement prizes, at a ceremony on November 18 in Venice, Italy. Evaluated by a jury comprising five independent expert panels from around the world, these projects were chosen to highlight contextual and practical approaches to sustainable construction, showcasing diversity across scales, budgets, geographies, and forms. On another hand, Francis Kéré winner of the Global Holcim Gold in 2012 and Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2022 took the stage at the event to talk about the influence of the Holcim Award on his career.
DnA_Design and Architecture Studio took home the golden prize for Asia-Pacific for an adaptive reuse project of a heritage building, while Husos, Elii, and Ultrazul won for Europe with a360° co-design process for the rehabilitation of an industrial building. For the Latin American territory, Cano Vera Arquitectura was selected for an urban forest and social infrastructure precinct, and for the MEA region, Juergen Strohmayer and Glenn DeRoché were praised for a youth empowerment and responsible tourism cooperative. Finally, Partisans Architects and Well-Grounded Real Estate won the first prize for North America with ahigh-tech and low-cost modular housing solution for urban living.
In his latest TED Talk, Thomas Heatherwick decries a condition affecting areas of the city defined by monotonous buildings, or what he calls “an epidemic of boringness.” While recognizing the functionality which drove these designs, he states that functionality alone cannot ensure that the structures become active parts of urban life, as they often fail to provoke an emotional response from passers-by. Heatherwick explains that, in his view, this emotional function, or the ability of buildings to mean something to their users and visitors, is essential. When it succeeds, architecture can positively contribute to the quality of life and well-being of its residents, promote social cohesion and contribute to a sense of identity. So how can architecture provoke a positive emotional connection and provide an enjoyable backdrop to the communities it serves?
The Pritzker Architecture Prize presents The Role of Practice, the 2023 Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion, today, Tuesday, May 23rd at 3:40 PM EEST, in partnership with the National Technical University of Athens, and with the participation of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Patras and the Technical University of Crete.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize 2023 Laureate David Chipperfield will deliver the lecture, reflecting on architectural practice's role, responsibilities, and opportunities. Moreover, the 2023 winner will explore "how market forces have dominated architecture and become increasingly detached from its place, just as the challenges of the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, and social inequality have heightened the urgency for a more proactive position". Alejandro Aravena, Jury Chair, and 2016 Laureate will introduce the lecture, which will be followed by a conversation between David Chipperfield, Francis Kéré, 2022 Laureate, and Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, 2021 Laureates, as they each "reveal the successes and failures of their respective journeys which effected their architectural philosophies and works, and led them to the shared stage of the present".
Hard times bring people together. In recent years we have seen how collective work can be a driving force to help those affected by natural or man-made disasters. After a disaster or displacement, a safe physical environment is often essential. Therefore, the need for coordination becomes a key factor in assisting people in times of need.
Architects, as "Shelter Specialists", play an important role in creating safe and adequate environments, whether it is individual housing, public buildings, schools, or emergency tent camps. But as architect Diébédo Francis Kéré says, "When you have nothing and you want to convince your community to believe in an idea, it may happen that everybody starts working with you, but you need to keep fighting to convince them."
The immensity of China leads to the diversity of customs and climatic conditions. Each area has its own unique materials, construction methods, and climate adaptation measures. The regional characteristics of Chinese architecture are generally preserved in rural buildings. But we cannot overlook how contemporary technology may considerably improve the living and use conditions of rural buildings. What is the best way to create a balance between classic or inherent technology and new ones? How would the construction of rural architecture provide inspiration for the development of Chinese architectural cultural symbols?
2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré reported the great solutions of Burkina Faso. Kéré insists to build comfortable buildings at a reasonable price; to make users happy and inspire them to dream of a better life. The pride of the local culture is reinforced by the use of local materials and traditional techniques. And then Kéré‘s works in other countries show cultural emblems of Burkina Faso, which are the consequence of his own cultural accumulation.
Pritzker Prize 2022 Laureate Francis Kéré is known for “empowering and transforming communities through the process of architecture”, as the jury stated in its citation. In this recently published video, Martha Thorne, Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design and former executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, shares some of the reasons why Francis Kéré has won the Pritzker Prize 2022.
Meet 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Francis Kéré, Burkina Faso-born black architect, in an interview about his architectural philosophy, with Louisiana Channel. As the official statement of the Pritzker Architecture Prize notes, “Through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, and invention, and by the integrity of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize”, continually “empowering and transforming communities through the process of architecture.”
The election of Kéré is not only symbolic in a time of identity demands, where the institutions that make up the mainstream are required to more faithfully represent the social, cultural, and sexual realities that make up our societies, but it also confirms the recent approach of the Pritzker Prize jury.
"I Draw on Paper, but I Prefer to Draw on the Ground". This phrase caught my eye during Diébédo Francis Kéré's speech at the AAICO (Architecture and Art International Congress), which took place in Porto, Portugal from September 3 to 8, 2018. After being introduced by none other than Eduardo Souto de Moura, Kéré began his speech with the simplicity and humility that guides his work. His best-known works were built in remote places, where materials are scarce and the workforce is of the residents themselves, using local resources and techniques.
African architecture has received deserved international attention in the last decade and one of the main responsible for this is, undoubtedly, Diébédo Francis Kéré, 2022 Pritzker Prize Winner. Born in Gando, Burkina Faso, Kéré graduated in architecture at the Technische Universität Berlin, in Germany. Today, he maintains branches of his firm, Kéré Architecture, in both countries, through which he seeks to develop works in the "intersection of utopia and pragmatism", exploring the border between Western architecture and local practice.
Known for involving community in the construction process of its buildings, Kéré and his office have developed works that go beyond the conventional limits of architecture and touch on themes such as local economy, migration, culture and equity. We had the pleasure and privilege of talking with the architect about some of his projects and his broader vision on architecture. Read the full interview below.
Surgical Clinic and Health Center. Cortesia de Francis Kéré
"I just wanted my community to be a part of this process," Diébédo Francis Kéré said in an ArchDaily interview published last year. It's hard to think of another phrase that so well sums up the modesty and impact caused by the newest winner of the Pritzker Prize of Architecture, whose work gained notoriety precisely for involving the inhabitants of his village in the construction of works that combine ethical commitment, environmental efficiency, and aesthetic quality.
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.
“Through buildings that demonstrate beauty, modesty, boldness, and invention, and by the integrity of his architecture and geste, Kéré gracefully upholds the mission of this Prize,” explains the official statement of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Announced today by Tom Pritzker, Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation, Francis Kéré is the 51st winner of the award founded in 1979, succeeding Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. 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.
.jpg?1648133923 "Burkina Institute of Technology (BIT) / Kéré Architecture. Image Courtesy of Francis Kéré")
.jpg?1647823485 "Gando Primary School Extension / Kéré Architecture. Image © Erik Jan Ouwerkerk")
.jpg?1647822667 "Serpentine Pavilion / Kéré Architecture. Image Courtesy of Kéré Architecture")
.jpg?1647822697 "Startup Lions Campus / Kéré Architecture. Image Courtesy of Kéré Architecture")
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