The Pritzker Prize, the "Nobel Prize in architecture", was awarded to African architects
At 22:00 on March 15, Beijing time, the Pritzker Architecture award jury announced the winner of the Pritzker award in 2022: Di é B é do Francis K é R é, an architect from Africa. This is the first time that the Pritzker Prize has been awarded to African architects since its inception in 1979. It marks a renewed focus on previously marginalized architectural practices, which may mean a major shift in western architecture itself.
Diebedo Francis Carlyle @ Lars Borges diebedo Francis Carlyle @ Lars Borges
Diebedo Francis Carlyle is an architect, educator and social activist. He is the 51st winner of the Pritzker award. He came from a village in Burkina Faso, a poor country in West Africa. After studying for a degree at the Berlin Institute of technology in Germany, he returned to his motherland to build many educational buildings. He used regional materials to build modern buildings beyond the construction itself, took design as the anchor point to change the direction of community development, and proved that buildings can exceed the use function and bring social influence.
"Francis Carlyle pioneered sustainable architecture in an extremely scarce land. He is both an architect and a service provider. Through his beauty, humility, bold creativity, clear architectural language and mature ideas, Carlyle has improved the lives of countless residents in an often forgotten area of the earth and brought gifts outside the scope of architecture. Carlyle has adhered to the mission of the Pritzker award." The Pritzker Prize jury commented.
Sarbal é Ke art installation @ iwan Baan sarbal é Ke art installation @ iwan BAAN
Francis Carlyle once said: I hope that everyone can not enjoy the luxury and comfort of the climate, because I hope that everyone can enjoy the quality of wealth and comfort. Naturally, I can't enjoy the wealth and comfort together. I hope that everyone can enjoy the quality of wealth and comfort We share a common topic with mankind. "
Francis Carlyle was born in Burkina Faso in 1965, one of the least educated and poorest countries in the world. There is no clean drinking water, electricity and infrastructure, let alone construction.
"I grew up in a community without kindergartens, but the community is your home, everyone will take care of you, and the whole village is your playground. I've been running around looking for food and water all day, but we still live together, communicate and build houses together. I remember my grandmother sitting in a room with only weak lights and telling stories, while we were crowded together, and her voice echoed in the room, which will also be happy We were surrounded, and she asked us to get closer and form a safe place - this was my first perception of architecture. "
—Francis Carlyle
Mali National Park @ Francis K é R é Mali National Park @ Francis K é R é
Carlyle is the eldest son of the village head and the first person to go to school in the village. But Gando didn't have a school, so he left his family at the age of seven. His primary school classroom in tengkodogo is made of cement and lacks ventilation and lighting. In that extreme climate, he and more than 100 students crowded together in class and endured for hours at a time. He vowed to make the school better one day.
In 1985, he left his hometown. With a professional carpentry scholarship, he went to work study in Berlin, Germany: learning how to build roofs and make furniture during the day and studying middle school courses at night. In 1995, he received another scholarship to enter the Berlin Institute of technology, and graduated in 2004 with an advanced degree in architecture.
Although Carlyle is far away from Burkina Faso, his heart has never left his hometown. He recognized the joint and several liability with his right to education and established "schulbausteine f ü R Gando e.V." The foundation, translated as "preparing for Gando school", was later renamed Carlyle foundation in 1998 to raise money and advocate children's right to a comfortable classroom. His first architectural work was Gando primary school (2001, Burkina Faso Gando), which was built and used by the Gando people for themselves. From conception to completion, the local people have contributed their wisdom, labor and resources. Under the guidance of architects' creative use of local materials and modern engineering ideas, almost every part of the school has been built manually.
Every time I return to Gando, Carlyle imparts targeted ideas, technical knowledge, understanding of the environment and aesthetic schemes to my hometown elders. With his cultural sensitivity and dedication, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to serving mankind and became a generous man all over the world
Gando Primary School @ Erik Jan owerkerk
Gando primary school (Burkina Faso, 2001) laid the foundation for Carlyle's architectural concept - to create a power source for the community, meet basic needs in function and make up for social injustice in essence. His idea is fed back to architecture, which needs to cover dual solutions - a modern physical design to realize the possibility of building facilities dealing with extreme heat and harsh lighting conditions with limited resources; And a firm social belief to overcome all kinds of uncertainty from within the community. He raised funds internationally. From project conception to vocational skills training, he created solid development opportunities for local residents. The locally sourced clay is strengthened with cement to form bricks with heat accumulation, which can retain the cool air indoors, while allowing the heat to be emitted through the brick ceiling and the wide suspended elevated roof, so as to realize ventilation without the mechanical intervention of air conditioning.
"In Burkina Faso, a good building is a classroom. You can sit there and let the filtered light enter in the way you want, shine on the blackboard, or sprinkle on the desk. How can we take away the heat of the sun and make full use of the light? Create climate conditions to provide basic comfort, realize real teaching and learning, and experience the fun of teaching."
——Francis Carlyle
Opera village @ Francis K é R é opera village @ Francis K é R é
Rendering of opera village @ K é R é architecturerender_ J
Rendering of opera village @ K é R é architecturerender_ J
Medical and social welfare center @ Francis K é R é
Surgical clinic and medical center @ Francis K é R é
The success of this project has increased the number of students in the school from 120 to 700, and further contributed to the construction of projects such as teacher housing (Burkina Faso fassogando, 2004), school expansion (Burkina Faso fassogando, 2008) and Library (Burkina Faso fassogando, 2019).
The success of Gando primary school won him the Aga Khan Architecture Award in 2004 and inspired him to set up his own company Carlyle architects in Berlin, Germany in 2005. With the completion of more primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and medical facilities, not only Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda have followed suit. Carlyle's architectural works in Africa have achieved unprecedented results, not only providing education for children and medical treatment for patients, but also creating employment opportunities and training vocational skills for adults, so as to serve the whole community and help the community achieve stable development in the future.
Schore K é Francis high school
Benga riverside School @ Francis K é R é
In the 2022 review speech, he said: "he knows that architecture is about the goal rather than the material object, the process rather than the product. Francis Carlyle shows the world with all his works that materials rooted in the local area can create unlimited power. His architecture, built for the community and coexisting with the community, intuitively reflects all aspects of the community - from construction, material selection, planning to the characteristics of the community, has been integrated into the architecture."
Francis Carlyle's work, in terms of its essence and existence, is the result of its interaction with the architectural environment. It brings the local, national, regional and global levels into the discussion through a very personalized balance between grass-roots experience, academic quality, low technology, high technology and truly complex multiculturalism. In addition to African architectural works, he has pavilions and installations in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. His important works also include: tippet rise Art Center (Montana, USA, 2019), l é o doctor's house (L é o, Burkina Faso, 2019), LYC é e schorge middle school (koudougou, Burkina Faso, 2016), Mali National Park (Bamako, Mali, 2010) and opera Village (phase I, laongo, Burkina Faso, 2010).
Burkina Faso Institute of technology @ Francis K é R é
Dr. Leo's House @ Francis K é R é
Snake Gallery @ Francis K é R é
Founded by the late Jay Pritzker and his wife Cindy in 1979, Pritzker Architecture Award is awarded to one or more living architects every year to recognize their talent, vision and sense of responsibility reflected in architectural design and their continuous and outstanding contributions to human society and human settlements through architectural art.