Architecture | Diébédo Francis Kéré: The Gando Project

When architect Diébédo Francis Kéré was about to leave his home in Gando in Burkina Faso to go to school, he said the women of his village gave him pennies which they were keeping in the hems of their clothes. When he asked his mother “Why do these women like me so much?” she replied that what they were showing him was a sign of respect. By contributing to his education they hoped that he would one day return to his village and help them.

Above image: Diébédo Francis Kéré at work.

That story, from to the TED talk linked above, is important to understanding the Berlin-trained architect’s ongoing “Gando” project, which so far has brought schools, a library and a medical clinic to villages in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world according to the World Bank.

Kéré’s path as a humanitarian and community organizer started when he was still in school. He wanted to raise money to bring these buildings to his home, so he sold drawings. At one point he convinced his roommate in Berlin to cut back on smoking and donate the money to him instead. About $50,000 later, he was ready to break ground on a primary school in Gando.

The challenge in doing this was in collaborating with the people of his village who didn’t know how to read or write. He had to teach them architectural techniques and convince them that, with the right engineering, a building made of clay could withstand his country’s intense rainy season. At one point in the TED talk he quips, “The Gando Project was always connected to training the people. I know that one day when I fall down and die at least one person will continue this work.”

That first project included some clever methods for dealing with Burkina Faso’s environment. The roof of the primary school is raised slightly off the wall so that air will continuously flow through the building and keep it cool. Kéré adopted similar techniques with his other buildings which follow.

From there Kéré tackled another problem with education in Gando: the distance. Indeed, one of the ideas that inspired the project as a whole was the great lengths Kéré had to travel to attend school when he was seven years old. His next project was an extension building for teachers, making it easier for educators to make the decision to move out to the country.

A project description on Kéré’s web site explains that he wanted to promote the use of earth as a sustainable and durable building material. These earth-block living quarters are single modules which form a whole reminiscent of a typical village in the region. To protect them from the rain, the walls are 40 centimeters thick and sit atop foundations of cement and granite stone.

A few years after that project, as many as 260 children from Gando and the surrounding region were attending school. To accommodate the demand, Kéré started an extension in 2008 which follows the architectural principles he began with the first two projects. Here we can see the raised roof and earthen blocks at work in the design.

Using workers who were trained in his previous projects, Kéré built a secondary school in nearby Dano in 2007. At work in this structure are the raised roof for ventilation as we’ve seen before with the new addition of laterite stone as a locally-sourced building material. The building becomes a little more complex with the addition of a computer room, and office and an outdoor “conversation pit” for students.

More recently, Kéré completed a basic health center in Laongo. The building includes spaces for dentistry, gynecology, obstetrics and general medicine. The windows, the architect states, are composed like picture frames and can be looked out through by both children and adults, whether they are standing or sitting.

Kéré’s most recent project is a library to accompany the pirmary school in Gando. In addition to connecting the original and extension buildings, it’s shape shields the campus from the wind. Rather than have a raised roof, like his earlier buildings, Kéré got creative with how he approached the ventilation issue. He states in the TED talk above that his region has many terracotta pots. As he and his workers construct the roof, these pots are fitted into the structure and removed, creating holes which will help air flow through the building.

This project currently needs funding, so it would be a good idea here to direct our readers to Kéré’s support page. Everything you’re seeing here, especially the educational buildings, are happening because of the success of their predecessors. This library is being constructed because Kéré’s schools are seeing more and more students walk through their doors every year. Please consider supporting this ongoing project, not only because it’s unique and fascinating architecture, but also because it fills a necessary need for public infrastructure in the region.

More photographs of the buildings and their construction follow. Please check out our video post which accompanies this article.

Bill Rodgers is a Contributing Editor at CFile.

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