When Diébédo Francis Kéré got a call from the Pritzker Prize jury awarding him with architecture’s highest honour, he was so overwhelmed that he lost his voice.

In the past, laureates of the prestigious prize were known for their high-profile buildings, art centres, expo plazas and skyscrapers. But Kéré, who is the first African and first Black laureate, is now internationally recognized for his schools, health-care clinics and homes.

“I came from a place where all of these were urgently needed,” Kéré told As It Happens guest host Gillian Findlay.

“I had to leave my home village when I was seven to attend school … and so for this reason, instinctively, I wanted to start with the school building, allowing kids from that community to stay home and learn A, B, C.”

Kéré was born in 1965 in Gando, a remote village almost 200 kilometres away from the capital of Burkina Faso. He was the oldest son of the village chief and the first in his community to attend school.

“I sat with more than 100 other kids and there was no light, while the sunlight was so abundant, and I wanted to one day make things better,” he said. “That is how I started to think about how you can make schools that are really comfortable for the kids and the teachers, but also inspiring.”

He later won a scholarship to study woodwork in Germany, but switched into architecture at the Technical University of Berlin for better prospects at bringing his skills back home.

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