At 22:00 Beijing time today, the 2022 Pritzker Prize was announced: this year's highest honor in architecture, the Pritzker Prize, was awarded to the African architect Diébédo Francis Kéré. This is the first time in the history of the Pritzker Prize that it has been awarded to African architects, marking a renewed focus on previously marginalized architectural practices, which may mean a major shift in Western architecture itself.
Diébédo Francis Kéré
Diébédo Francis Kéré, architect, educator and social activist, is the 51st recipient of the Pritzker Prize. Coming from the countryside of Burkina Faso, a poor country in West Africa, he returned to his home country to build numerous educational buildings after pursuing a degree at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany. He works in marginalized countries full of limitations and adversities, using regional materials to build modern buildings beyond the construction itself, using design as an anchor to change the direction of community development, proving that architecture can exceed the use of function, and bring about social impact.
"Francis Carlyle pioneered sustainable architecture on land that was desperately scarce. He is both an architect and a servicer, and through his beauty, humility, bold creativity, clear architectural language and mature thoughts, he has improved the lives of countless inhabitants of one of the often forgotten parts of the world, bringing gifts beyond the scope of the architectural discipline, and Carlyle has adhered to the mission of the Pritzker Prize. The Pritzker Prize jury commented.
Francis Carlyle has said: "I want to change people's mindsets and push them to achieve their dreams and take risks." Just because you are rich, you can't waste materials for granted. You can't just be poor and don't stop trying to pursue quality, everyone should enjoy quality, everyone should enjoy comfort, everyone should enjoy 'luxury'. People are closely connected, and anxiety about climate, democracy and material deprivation is a common issue for us. ”
In addition, significant changes to this year's Pritzker Prize include the appointment of Manuela Lucá-Dazio as the new executive director of the prize. She is a Ph.D. in the history of architecture at the University of Rome in Chieti, Italy, and was the Executive Director of the Visual Arts and Architecture sub-exhibition at the Venice Biennale.
Founded in 1979 by the Pritzker family in Chicago, usa, and the Hyatt Foundation, the Pritzker Prize is awarded annually to one or more living architects who have made outstanding contributions, "whose architectural work demonstrates a combination of qualities such as talent, vision, and commitment, and makes a sustained and significant contribution to people and the built environment through architectural art." The winner will receive $100,000 in prize money and a bronze medal, the Pritzker Architecture Medal, which was cast based on a design by Louis Sullivan. On one side of the medal is the name of the prize, and on the other side are engraved three words: "solid, valuable and pleasant", echoing the three basic principles proposed by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius: solidity, practicality and beauty.
Pritzker Medal