Judy: The biggest international
prize in architecture, the
Pritzker prize, will be awarded
tomorrow in London.
It's going to an architect known
for his work on buildings that
address social needs,
particularly in African
countries.
This year's prize also makes
history, as Francis kere becomes
the first African and the first
black architect to earn the
honor.
Jeffrey brown has the story for
our arts and culture series,
canvas.
Jeffrey: A primary school built
in 2001.
The first in the village of
gando, in the west African
nation of Burkina Faso.
Its very existence, plus its use
of local materials, natural
light, and ventilation, have
made it a game-changer for its
community, for the field of
architecture, and for its
designer, diebedo Francis kere,
who'd had to leave his home here
a nearby town.
>> Going to school is still a
big, big dream for millions of
young people in Africa.
This is still a big dream.
And so, I was very, very lucky.
And I felt privileged to be able
to attend school education.
What do you do if you are
privileged like I am to be one
of the very first from my
community to attend school
education?
So I went back trying to build a
school for the other kids.
So that was how I started my
career.
Jeffrey: That career, after a
scholarship later allowed here
to study in Germany, where he
continues to work, has now won
him the Pritzker prize,
architecture's highest honor.
But he's never forgotten the
experience of sitting in dark,
stifling classrooms as a child.
>> You had very tiny little
openings and you had no light
inside the classroom, while
outside you had the bright sun.
So I wanted to create the school
in my village to allow other
kids to stay in the village and
be able to attend education.
Education is so important for
human development.
But I wanted to have better
classrooms.
I wanted to have well-ventilated
classrooms.
I wanted to have a bright
person.
I wanted people to feel happy
going to school.
Jeffrey: Last year, a "New York
Times" survey named the school
he designed in gando as one of
the 25 most significant works of
postwar architecture.
And here, now 56, has continued
to define and refine an
architecture of social purpose
-- schools, housing, healthcare
centers, and more.
Mostly in Africa, always working
with limited resources, and
using simple materials such as
wood and clay.
Kere often works closely with
community members, at times
including them in the building,
and even helping raise funds for
projects through a foundation he
first created to help build the
school in gando.
This doesn't sound like the
normal activities for an
architect.
>> Yes.
Yeah, this is right.
It wasn't that easy.
It was not the normal way.
I needed to create this
structure in order to raise the
needed money to be able to build
the school.
And we succeeded, honestly.
I think it was good.
You know, a great experience.
For me, it was the best thing
that I could do.
Jeffrey: Why has it been so
important to involve the
community, even having them help
build some of these buildings?
>> It's really important.
It's about how do you transfer
knowledge.
If you build a school and you
have the community be involved,
there are two things that are
happening.
First, you are getting the
community to really become
proud.
The common sense.
It is we.
It is our school.
And, you know, they will protect
it.
The second thing, most
important, is knowledge.
You are transferring knowledge.
And then you're making your
community even stronger.
At the end of the day, I am the
one that gained a lot from that.
I have a happy community that
has the school and I'm very
happy.
And I am getting even to talk to
you, to talk to you, Jeffrey.
Can you imagine?
Jeffrey: Kere's firm designed
the serpentine pavilion in
London in 2017.
And he's shown a whimsical side
in so-far limited work in the
U.S. -- Colorful towers for a
2019 installation at the
Coachella music festival.
A structure called xylem at the
tippet rise art center in
fishtail, Montana.
Among his recent or ongoing
projects, the Benin national
parliament, now under
construction.
The Goethe institute in Dakar,
Senegal.
A community playground soon to
open in Kampala, Uganda.
And, in the design stage in
Germany, a bridge in Mannheim
and a kindergarten in Munich.
At the heart of every project,
he says, are the people he's
building for, especially in his
home region.
>> I realize, wow, I have not
just only created the structure,
but I am changing the game, how
people see things.
You know?
People in my place, they love
the west.
You don't know that.
They love the west, they love
your culture, and they want to
have it.
But often we don't have educated
people to get our people to
benefit from all these
achievements in science, you
know, in design, in economic
innovation.
And I did, with architecture, I
did this for my people.
Jeffrey: How much does your work
-- how much does that translate
to work that you do in Europe,
in the U.S., in work that you
will do?
>> My work is transporting
optimism.
It is looking how we can learn
from past and to create
something that is refreshing, by
applying materials that are not
causing a heavy burden to the
environment.
So these issues are not just for
the poor, the poor community.
It is worldwide.
Jeffrey: Another way in which
this prize is important, here is
the first African and first
black architect to win the
Pritzker in its 44 year history.
>> It's just history and I am
part of it.
So, I take it, and it's a great,
great honor, a big privilege, if
it can inspire others.
But about the field of
architecture, there is something
we have to know.
Studying architecture is very
expensive, very expensive.
And the access to any kind of
education in Africa, where you
have most black people living,
is also not easy.
Jeffrey: And then there is the
cost of building itself.
But kere believes that an
increased focus on the kind of
work he does can help change the
larger field of architecture.
>> In the moment, there are more
elements that can contribute to
architecture than in the past.
The social component is being
seen as something that is
important.
Climate issues is important.
And so I am very happy that my
work has become where this was
needed.
But I wish that the world will
create more schools in Africa so
that we see in the near future
more inspiring examples from
Africa.
And I hope many of them will win
Pritzker.
For sure, they will.
Jeffrey: Alright, diebedo
Francis kere, congratulations
again, and thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
Thank you very much, and I hope
to see you soon.