Recommendations of the Editorial team
Francis Kéré is one of the most famous architects with roots on the African continent. The Burkinabe-German building planner also regularly makes headlines, most recently when he warned that simple construction and innovation were no longer possible in Germany. “In Germany, architecture is becoming a martial art,” Kéré told “Zeit”. “The construction industry is doing everything it can to make building more expensive.” He complains that many buildings have too many layers of insulation material: “This practice is incorporated into building standards, and that blocks both innovation and simplicity.” He wants to change that.
The 61-year-old with an office in Berlin is the first African and the third German to be awarded the Pritzker Prize and is now presenting his volume “Francis Kéré. Building Stories”. A look back at 26 projects, from school buildings in Burkina Faso to international prestige projects such as the Serpentine Pavilion in London – buildings that incorporate local resources and serve as a model for sustainable construction.
Kéré’s focus on materials such as clay bricks and passive climate strategies is certainly seen as an answer to ecological challenges. The volume follows a self-interpretation: Kéré acts as a narrator of his own practice and frames his architecture as a social and ecological project. Some critics see these building ideals as an “exoticized” alternative that serves the expectations of the global north – but overlook the fact that this itself reflects a clichéd critic’s attitude.
- BAGS
- Francis Kere. Building Stories.
- Softcover, 19 x 25.5 cm, 1.09 kg, 444 pages
- 75 euros
On Tuesday, June 9th, at 6 p.m., the book will be presented and signed exclusively by Francis Kéré in the Berlin TASCHEN Store (Schlüterstraße 39, 10629 Berlin).
