Eco-First Designs Celebrate Indigenous African Culture
Kéré Architecture, founded by renowned architect Francis Kéré, is universally admired for designing structures with uplifting African Indigenous design motifs that meet the needs of communities across the globe. And the Kéré team does it with sustainable, local materials and production techniques.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has recognized Kéré Architecture for its traditional, environmentally responsible building practices, particularly in Africa, where population growth creates an urgent need for urban housing. By 2050, Africa’s population is predicted to reach 2.4 billion, with 80% of the growth expected in cities, according to the African Development Bank.
Today, Africa accounts for approximately 6% of global energy demand. More than half of this comes from the continent’s buildings. As African cities grow, so will the consequences for the environment if nature-based construction is not encouraged.
According to UNEP, 70% of Africa's building stock that is expected to exist in 2040 has yet to be constructed, While building poses a challenge, it also creates an opportunity to produce buildings using energy-saving techniques with a lower carbon footprint.
Berlin-Based Solutions
Berlin-based Kéré Architecture collaborates with schools, communities, and cultural events throughout the world to design eco-friendly structures reflecting African influences.
Berlin-based Kéré Architecture collaborates with schools, communities, and cultural events throughout the world to design eco-friendly structures reflecting African influences.
The firm adopts building techniques that reduce the need for air conditioning, long-range transport of building materials, and concrete production, all of which add to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to the climate crisis.
Lycée Schorge Secondary School
The UN teamed up with Francis Kéré and colleagues on a project in Kéré’s home country of Burkina Faso: Lycée Schorge Secondary School.
Designed by Kéré Architecture and completed between 2014 and 2016, the 1,660-square-meter-built area (about 17,800 square feet) is located in Koudougou, the third most populated city in Burkina Faso.
The Lycée Schorge design took inspiration from traditional settlements in this part of West Africa. To create the feel of an autonomous “village,” the school has a central courtyard surrounded by nine modules that protect students and staff from the region’s typical extremities of heat, wind, and dust.
The Kéré Architecture team used locally sourced laterite (a type of soil rich in iron and aluminum) that gives the campus its deep red color. With excellent thermal mass, laterite can absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night. The laterite was cut and shaped into bricks, left in the sun to harden, and used to construct the school’s nine modules.
Using local eucalyptus wood wraps, Kéré Architecture developed a secondary façade to fit around the classrooms and act as a transparent “fabric” to cool rooms during hot daytime temperatures.
Using local eucalyptus wood wraps, Kéré Architecture developed a secondary façade to fit around the classrooms and act as a transparent “fabric” to cool rooms during hot daytime temperatures. An undulating ceiling, wind-catching towers, and overhanging roofs were also installed to decrease the temperature in the school’s interior.
“The Lycée Schorge Secondary School sets a new standard for educational excellence in the region while providing an inspiring showcase of local building materials applied to an iconic and innovative design,” said Kéré Architecture.
Balancing Progress and Function
With Francis Kéré at the helm, the firm’s design timeline has reflected various influences and ecological advancements. This can be seen in Francis Kéré’s inaugural project in Burkino Faso, Gando Primary School, built in his hometown.
Completed in 2001, the 520-square-meter (almost 5,600 square feet) school was a collaboration between the Kéré Foundation and the Community of Gando. Besides expanding the number of schools in the Boulgou Province, the designers sought to solve two issues typically plaguing educational buildings: poor ventilation and lighting. The project took home the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004 and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2009.
The Gando school inspired the creation of the Naaba Belem Goumma School a decade later, which won Kéré the 2011 Regional Holcim Award Gold for Africa, and the 2012 Global Holcim Award Gold for Middle East.
“[T]he design pioneers a new building technique: in-situ cast walls made of poured local clay mixed with cement and aggregate.”
“Combining both modern and vernacular construction methods, the design pioneers a new building technique: in-situ cast walls made of poured local clay mixed with cement and aggregate,” Kéré Architecture stated.
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2-meter-wide (~6.5 ft) walls (left) were formed from local clay mixed with cement and aggregate (right) to construct the Naaba Balem Goumma School. ©Kéré Architecture
This technique enabled a faster build with greater architectural flexibility than with traditional clay bricks, the company said. The material was chosen for its sustainable properties, as well, and for being cheaper than concrete. Its properties allowed for up to 2-meter-wide (~6.5 ft) wall modules, using steel formwork that can be removed within 48 hours (see images above).
Eucalyptus wood façades and large roof overhangs were added to protect against wind and dust (see images below).
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The school’s buildings are arranged in ways reminiscent of traditional compounds in the region. A circle opens to the west, presenting a protected courtyard preventing hot and dusty wind from entering the school’s yards. A double facade was constructed to offer a shaded buffer zone between the two facade layers, further cooling the classrooms.
In addition, an extensive terraced area surrounds the campus, planted with native tree species. The landscaping helps control classroom temperatures while strengthening surrounding soil against desertification.
Fostering Collaboration
Pivoting from education to governance, Kéré Architecture was commissioned to design a new Benin National Assembly. It announced the project by saying: “Having outgrown its current building, which dates back to the colonial era of its past, the parliament of the Republic of Benin has entrusted Kéré Architecture to design a new national assembly that will embody the values of democracy and the cultural identity of its citizens.”
Construction began in 2019. The layout of the 35,000-square-meter (~376,000 square feet) National Assembly is inspired by the “palaver tree,” the symbol of the West African tradition of meeting under a tree to problem-solve in a community’s best interests.
“The palaver tree is a timeless symbol, having borne witness to previous generations and inspiring respect for the majestic forces of nature,” Kéré Architecture said.
“[T]he parliament of the Republic of Benin has entrusted Kéré Architecture to design a new national assembly that will embody the values of democracy and the cultural identity of its citizens.”
The “trunk” of the building is a hollow structure presenting a central courtyard. Its design allows for people to gather in spaces that receive natural ventilation and indirect light.
A public park, which will be home to Benin’s native flora, will extend to the “roots” of the tree-like design to boost openness and transparency and provide extensive shaded space. Planted roofs will merge the park’s environment with the core architecture.
Kéré Brings Baobab Designs to California
In 2019, Kéré Architecture designed a “living” installation, inspired by the baobab tree (see video), for the outdoor space of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California.
Calling the group of structures Sarbalé Ke—or “House of Celebration” in the Bissa language of Burkina Faso—Francis Kéré and team designed the structures to mimic the interior of the baobab. The legendary tree is known for becoming hollow inside with “skylights” forming in the central trunk as it grows.
“In West Africa, [the baobab] is deeply valued as a community landmark and revered for its medicinal and nutritional uses,” the company explained.
“In West Africa, [the baobab] is deeply valued as a community landmark and revered for its medicinal and nutritional uses.”
Kéré Architecture’s Coachella installation featured 12 baobab towers, each designed to mirror the material, texture, and spatial layout of the architecture in Francis Kéré’s birthplace of Gando. In the daytime, the towers’ radial design welcomes light into each structure. Then, as the sun sets, the baobab towers are illuminated from within to brighten the festival through the night.
At the design’s heart, its three tallest “trees” form the installation’s center and its primary gathering space. Visitors are encouraged to connect with the ecologically inspired spaces, each a merger of nature and construction.
“The materials for the baobab towers were chosen with affordability and local availability in mind,” Kéré Architecture said. Steel is the primary structural material and supports triangular wooden panels in matte blues, oranges, reds, and pink, nostalgic of the color palette of California’s sunrises, sunsets, and nearby mountain ranges.
Following the 2019 festival, Sarbalé Ke was rehomed to the East Coachella Valley, where it now resides as a permanent structure in a public gathering pavilion (see video).
Belief in a Good Future
In 2022, Francis Kéré became the first African to receive the Pritzker Prize, hailed as the “Nobel Prize for Architecture.” In April 2024, he announced a new design project at Munich’s Technical University (TUM) where he serves as professor of architectural design and participation.
His team will design a vertical, urban daycare center using wood as its core building material. Named Ingeborg Pohl Kinderoase (Children’s Oasis), the 700-square-meter (~7,500 square feet) school is expected to welcome 60 children by the end of 2025. It will feature an outdoor play area on the center’s roof called “Himmelswiese” (“Meadow in the Sky”).
“I work as an architect all over the world, but I feel a special connection to my university, TUM,” Francis Kéré said. This house will, of course, be a house for children, but it is also a gift to the entire urban society, a signal for sustainability and the belief in a good future,” he added.
It could be said that Francis Kéré’s gift, like each of his architectural contributions, will marry history to the future, connection to space, and the familiar to the sustainable.
*Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe is a freelance journalist and editor. Over the past 10 years, Natasha has reported for a host of publications, exploring the wider world and industries from environmental, scientific, business, legal, and sociological perspectives. Natasha has also been interviewed as an insight provider for research institutes and conferences.
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