Lectures
Francis Kéré
Building Stories and Dreams
The internationally acclaimed architect Francis Kéré garnered critical praise from the beginning of his architectural practice when awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2004) for his first ever building - a primary school he designed, raised the funds for and realised in collaboration with the residents of his native Gando, Burkina Faso. In 2022, he became the first African architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Kéré has gone on to become one of the most distinguished contemporary architects, thanks to his pioneering of a communal approach to design and his commitment to sustainable materials, as well as modes of construction. Inspired by a curiosity for the particularities of any given locality and its social tapestry, he has gathered a diverse, agile team at his Berlin-based Kéré Architecture offices, to take on projects across five continents. Most prominently these include the Léo Surgical Clinic & Health Centre (2014), the Lycée Schorge Secondary School (2016), the Serpentine Pavilion (2017), Xylem (2019), a gathering pavilion for the Tippet Rise Art Center, the Startup Lions Campus (2021), the Thomas Sankara Mausoleum (2025), Munich’s Kinderoase an der TUM (2026), the Goethe Institut in Dakar (2026), the Benin National Assembly (under construction), the Las Vegas Museum of Art and Rio de Janeiro’s Biblioteca dos Saberes (both in development).
Underpinning his architectural practice are his past and current teaching engagements at TU München, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, and Yale University as well as his participation in solo and group exhibitions including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Museo ICO in Madrid, the Architekturmuseum in Munich, the MoMA in New York, the Royal Academy in London and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
