{"id":9244,"date":"2026-06-12T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=9244"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:05:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:05:58","slug":"i-still-say-to-myself-i-have-achieved-a-lot-says-diebedo-francis-kere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/i-still-say-to-myself-i-have-achieved-a-lot-says-diebedo-francis-kere\/","title":{"rendered":"“I still say to myself ‘I have achieved a lot'” says Di\u00e9b\u00e9do Francis K\u00e9r\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Di\u00e9b\u00e9do<\/div>\n

Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Di\u00e9b\u00e9do Francis K\u00e9r\u00e9<\/a> has written a book<\/a> candidly outlining his extraordinary career so far. In this interview<\/a>, he explains why now felt like the moment to share what he’s discovered along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burkinab\u00e8 architect K\u00e9r\u00e9 became the first African to win the profession’s most prestigious award in 2022, in recognition of his community, resource and climate-conscious approach.<\/p>\n

Having grown up in Burkina Faso<\/a> \u2013 one of the world’s most impoverished countries \u2013 he studied architecture in Berlin, after first moving to the city in the 1980s on a vocational carpentry scholarship.<\/p>\n

\"Building
Pritzker-winner Di\u00e9b\u00e9do Francis K\u00e9r\u00e9 has written a book recounting his career so far. Photo courtesy of Taschen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His studio, K\u00e9r\u00e9 Architecture<\/a>, was founded in the German capital in 2005. Recent commissions include the Benin National Assembly<\/a> and Las Vegas Museum of Art<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 61-year-old recently released a book in which he candidly reflects on his rise to become one of architecture’s most respected figures.<\/p>\n

Titled Francis K\u00e9r\u00e9: Building Stories, it is designed to read like a personal notebook, recounting pivotal moments in his career from an unfiltered, first-hand perspective.<\/p>\n

A recurring theme is K\u00e9r\u00e9’s sense of pressure for his buildings to be successful, and an almost-chronic fear of falling short.<\/p>\n

“I have survived. I succeeded.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“All of this emotion led me to write this book this way, to present what I have discovered for my people \u2013 it was like a miracle,” he told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“When I started working in Burkina, life expectancy was under 40,” he continued. “Now, it’s far more than 40, but I still say to myself ‘I have achieved a lot. I have survived. I succeeded.'”<\/p>\n

“Why wait before talking frankly about what matters?”<\/p>\n

\"Di\u00e9b\u00e9do
The Burkinab\u00e8 architect reflects on moments of pressure and luck in the book. Photo by Urban Zintel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One period of fear that sticks in K\u00e9r\u00e9’s mind is when he was working on his first building \u2013 a primary school in his hometown<\/a>, completed while he was still a student in Berlin in 2001.<\/p>\n

Determined to create something unique for his community, K\u00e9r\u00e9 had to overcome local skepticism over the use of unfired clay blocks due to concerns about the material’s ability to withstand rainfall and maintenance requirements.<\/p>\n

“It was true emotion and a lot of work to convince people,” K\u00e9r\u00e9 said. “In Africa, memory lasts very, very long. And if you fail, you fail.”<\/p>\n

“It was always the fear”<\/strong><\/p>\n

So much so, in fact, that he recalls being haunted by visions of future generations of his family being reminded of his blunder by members of the tribe.<\/p>\n

“People would have always said, ‘you had an ancestor who wanted to teach us how to build very differently, but he failed,'” he remembered thinking.<\/p>\n

“It was always the fear. And those moments, when I’m thinking back, I say ‘wow, how lucky I was’.”<\/p>\n

\"K\u00e9r\u00e9
Building his inaugural Gando Primary School was marked by anxiety for K\u00e9r\u00e9. Photo courtesy of K\u00e9r\u00e9 Architecture Archive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As it turned out, the Gando Primary School became one of the most lauded buildings of the 21st century so far.<\/p>\n

Even now, having achieved worldwide acclaim, K\u00e9r\u00e9 continues to angst over his projects.<\/p>\n

That was the case for with the Thomas Sankara Memorial<\/a> in Ouagadougou (pictured top), built to honour Burkina Faso’s former president and national hero.<\/p>\n

“It’s a government project; there was a lot of pressure,” he said.<\/p>\n

Building a clay memorial was like “an insult”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The memorial encompasses a domed mausoleum, which was completed in early 2025, alongside a museum, a pavilion and a 100-metre-tall tower designed to be visible across the capital.<\/p>\n

Here again, K\u00e9r\u00e9 turned to compressed-earth bricks made from locally sourced clay for the structure, as well as locally sourced laterite.<\/p>\n

Until recently, using such humble materials for a project of this nature would have been unthinkable, but K\u00e9r\u00e9 was building on the success of his earlier works.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
K\u00e9r\u00e9’s Thomas Sankara Memorial commission came with “a lot of pressure”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“To say you’re going to build a memorial out of clay and laterite [was like] an insult,” he explained. “No one could imagine that you could use these materials and create something that would have a powerful meaning.”<\/p>\n

“I never thought that it would be possible,” he added.<\/p>\n

The book collates 26 K\u00e9r\u00e9 projects spanning Africa and beyond, including his 2017 Serpentine Pavilion<\/a>, the L\u00e9o Surgical Clinic and Health Centre and the yet-to-be-completed Burkina Faso National Assembly<\/a>.<\/p>\n