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"You can't waste materials just because you're rich. You can't just be poor and don't stop trying to pursue quality. ”
Written by | Shi Yuexin
Edit | Shen Jiayin
Operational | Qu Xinyu
Original production of "Look at the World" magazine
In impoverished African villages on the other side of the globe, there are no bricks, no cranes, no bulldozers, no electricity, no clean drinking water and, of course, no schools. The illiterate villagers, just battling heat and hunger, consumes most of their energy.
But without schools, the village would be impoverished for generations to come, and schools would have to be built. Built with what? There is no shortage of clay here, so use clay.
In order for the children to have a place to study, the villagers, men and women, sweated as hard as they could on the clay beneath their feet. Stomping feet, swinging mallets, polished polishing, hands and feet became the only "construction equipment" they could use.
The "Clay Elementary School" was built, and the village finally had its first school.
Gando Elementary School (Source: Pritzker Prize official website Erik-Jan Owerkerk)
The building, which shocked the world, was voted by The New York Times as "one of the 25 most important buildings in the world after World War II." Its designer and "contractor" was none other than Diabedo Francis Carlyle, a black architect who was born and raised in the village.
This year, 21 years have passed since the school was built, the school is still strong, and the children still love it.
On March 15, 2022, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest honor in the architectural world, was announced by Chinese architect I.M. Pei and architect Wang Shu, and Carlyle won the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Award.
He was the 51st winner of the "Oscars" of this architectural session and the first black man to receive the honor.
Pritzker's winning words read: "In a land of extreme scarcity, Carlyle has pioneered sustainable buildings for its residents there. As an architect and devotee, carlyle has firmly defended the mission of the Pritzker Prize in this often forgotten corner of the globe through beautiful, humble, bold and creative architecture, clear architectural language and mature thoughts, improving the lives of countless inhabitants and bringing gifts beyond the scope of the architectural discipline. ”
Carlyle's award also unleashes the ambition and signal of the Pritzker Prize: architecture can be an endless, ever-going source, and architecture can bring lasting happiness and joy.
Depart from the barren land
Most of Africa is the dry season. Hot, arid, the sun hovering overhead wreaks its own light and heat on the land beneath your feet. During the short rainy season, heavy rainfall, floods descended, and buildings were washed away. And it's mired in poverty, with low levels of education and poor infrastructure. It is even more difficult to build a lot in this land.
Carlyle was born in 1965 in one of the world's poorest regions, in the village of Gando in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Carlyle is the eldest son of the family and his father is the chief of the village. There is no electricity, no clean drinking water, no schools, and the houses are basically made of clay.
He grew up in a community without a kindergarten, and the whole village was his playground, where people were busy all day looking for food and water. But people in the community are like family, the villagers take care of each other, build houses together, and after the rainy season, everyone repairs the houses together.
In the evening, everyone sat in a circle around Carlyle's grandmother. Grandmother told stories, her voice echoing around, everyone next to each other, a sense of security wrapped around the young Carlyle. "This is my first impression of architecture." Carlyle said.
Father insisted that Carlyle read and write. When Carlyle was 7 years old, he moved with his uncle to a city far from the village. He also became the only child in the village who had the opportunity to receive a primary education, and the first person to leave the village to go to school.
In the city, he sat in a classroom for the first time. It was surrounded by walls made of cement, covered with tattered skin and dirt, and several sticks of wood straddled the top of the wall, covered with a row of cheap steel bars that held up the ceiling of the classroom. There is no ventilation and no lighting.
In Burkina Faso, the hottest time can reach 45 degrees. There are more than 150 children in a classroom, and everyone stays together for hours while studying. Carlyle studied here for 6 years.
One day he went to school and found that a classmate had died. This is a frequent occurrence in Burkina Faso, where there is a shortage of water and electricity and people are dying.
Since then, Carlyle has planted a seed in his heart — creating opportunities for Gando's children to build a school with their skills.
In 1985, he went even further, studying architecture in Berlin on a scholarship to professional carpenters. He learns to build roofs and furniture during the day and attends secondary school classes at night. In 1995 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Technical University of Berlin and in 2004 he received an advanced degree in architecture.
Centre for Medical and Social Welfare (Source: Pritzker Prize official website Francis Kéré)
During his studies, he began to design drawings, advising his classmates to reduce their spending on coffee and cigarettes to raise funds to support their school projects.
Two years later, Carlyle returned to Gando with the $50,000 he had raised and began building his first building, Gando Elementary School. At this time, he was still a college student.
A school built of clay
When the villagers heard that Carlyle was going to build a school with clay, the original ecstasy turned to disappointment, doubt, and anger. "Clay buildings can't sustain the rainy season! But Francis wants us to build a school out of clay! Could that be why he spent so much time studying in Europe? ”
The building materials in the village have always been clay, but there has never been innovation or modification of clay.
Carlyle kept communicating, knocking on each household's door and convincing every villager, and finally everyone began to be convinced. Everyone in the village, men and women alike, was involved in the construction process.
Gando did not have the conditions to use equipment and equipment, and everything was built using the most traditional technology - manpower.
The men were on the surface of the clay, their hands pestle the wood, and one foot stomped the clay for hours.
Gando Elementary School (Source: Iwan Baan, Official Website of the Pritzker Prize)
The women held mallets in their hands and knocked the clay surface, adding water and pounding them from time to time for hours.
Then the person in charge of polishing polished the ground with stones. The finished product is out.
"Very smooth, like a baby's ass." Carlyle said.
The walls of the school are made of locally compressed clay blocks in Gando, with cheap steel bars hidden inside the concrete, classroom ceilings made from these two materials, and simple ventilation systems in the classrooms.
Gando's primary school was built.
"The school has a simple concept of making the classroom a comfortable place. I want to make the classroom suitable for teaching and learning. Carlyle said.
Double roofs, shade rooms, indirect lighting, wind towers, cross ventilation, and even the use of clay pots for ventilation, lighting... These new architectural forms created by Carlyle have greatly improved the status quo of the village and the lives of the villagers, and have been gradually promoted to other tribes in Africa under the impetus of the government.
The success of Gando Elementary School increased the number of students enrolled in the school from 120 to 700, for which he received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. This also makes Carlyle one of Africa's top architects.
From 2004 to 2008, Carlyle again worked with the villagers to expand the teachers' apartment and school building. Since then, Carlyle has established additional primary, secondary and medical facilities in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda.
In Africa, clay is the most common building material. The rainy season in Africa is fast and fierce, and floods follow when they are fast. But the rainy season is not only a disaster, mud and sand wash away with the rain, providing a rich material for the building.
The Grand Mosque in the ancient city of Marigenne in West Africa was completed in 1907 after three constructions. At the time of construction, the building materials were all local red clay and branches, which is currently the largest clay building in the world, one of the famous landmarks in Africa, and was listed by UNESCO in the World Heritage List in 1987.
Gandhi Elementary School explains Carlyle's architectural philosophy: to work with the community to create a source of motivation for the community, to meet basic needs while compensating for social inequalities.
In 2014, he designed and set out to build a medical and social welfare centre in Ango, Burkina Faso. The walls there are decorated with high and low, staggered exterior windows. Whether it is a standing doctor, a visitor sitting here to rest, or a bedridden patient, you can enjoy the unique and chic scenery outside the window.
In 2019, Leo in Burkina Faso welcomed the Carlyle-designed "Dr. Leo's House". The dwellings here are made of compressed earthen bricks and the exterior walls are coated with plaster, which both guarantees heat insulation and avoids weathering. Doctors and volunteers who come to support can live here, and visiting specialists can better communicate with local doctors.
"I want to change people's mindset and push them to realize 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. ”
— Francis Carlyle
"Architecture can bring lasting joy and happiness"
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is the highest international award in the field of architecture and has been held 44 times since its inception in 1979. Chinese architect Wang Shu and Chinese architect I.M. Pei have both received the highest honor in the architectural world.
Carlyle's award made the jury throw out a series of questions:
What role does architecture play in the context of extreme resource scarcity? Faced with many obstacles, how should architecture break the game in the process of practice...
The success of primary and secondary schools designed by Carlyle has led to the establishment of many institutions. Each institution has demonstrated sensitivity to the bioclimate environment and sustainability in adapting to local developments. Carlyle came out of Africa with his own ideas, and that influence began to span the globe.
People in West Africa love to chat, tell stories, celebrate and hold rallies under a sacred tree, which is a West African tradition. In 2017, Carlyle incorporated it into the Serpentine Gallery in London, England.
In the middle of the serpentine gallery is a "big tree", surrounded by three walls forming a triangle, and the blue walls are also a reflection of the blue clothes that Carlyle wore as a child. The funnel-shaped roof allows the collected rainwater to be landscape-irrigated. This is also a metaphor for water scarcity on a global scale.
Serpentine Gallery (Source: Iwan Baan, Official Website of the Pritzker Prize)
In addition, there are Xylem pavilions in the United States, Mali National Park, Kenya's "Lion" start-up park, Carlyle's footprints throughout Denmark, Germany, Italy, Switzerland...
One of Carlyle's most important projects at the moment, the Burkina Faso National Assembly Building in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, is in progress, but it is still not completed due to the instability of the world situation.
Carlyle's architectural concepts go far beyond the aesthetic value of architecture, and his upbringing has led him to place great emphasis on the power of groups and communities.
"I feel that work is a personal task for me, and a responsibility to the community. In fact, everyone can take the time to investigate what is in place, and we must strive to improve people's quality of life. Carlyle said.
Carlyle's project in Gando not only improved the living conditions of everyone, but also cultivated the ability of villagers to build with their own hands. He wants to convey to the world that architecture can inspire villagers to build their own future.
All of the current projects in Africa are built by people trained by Carlyle, and more than 200 young people have jobs, and the benefit of this job is that these people do not have to work in neighboring countries and send money home.
"Gando's project has been training villagers in their skills from start to finish. Because I just hope that one day, if I fall to the ground and die, gando will have at least one person to continue the work. Carlyle said.
During carlyle's school days, whenever he returned to school at the end of the holidays, he would go door to door to say goodbye. The women of the village would make the same move: they would lift their clothes, take the only coin out of their pockets, and hand it to Carlyle. Seven-year-old Carlyle has always remembered this.
One day he asked his mother why the women in the village loved him so much.
"They want to contribute to your education spending, and they hope that you can return to the village after you have finished your studies and help the people in the village to live a better life," the mother said. ”
"I hope that now I can make the villagers proud of me." Carlyle said.
*Reference material:
1. Diabedo Francis Carlyle TED Talk
2.Diébédo Francis Kéré Receives the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize
https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/diebedo-francis-kere
3.IN THE STUDIO:DI B DO FRANCIS K R
https://www.kinfolk.com/diebedo-francis-kere/
4.Who Is Diébédo Francis Kéré? 15 Things to Know About the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Laureate
https://www.archdaily.com/978508/who-is-diebedo-francis-kere-15-things-to-know-about-the-2022-pritzker-architecture-laureate
5. "2022 Pritzker Prize Winner: Diébédo Francis Kéré"
6. "The Negro, the First Time"
Source: Look at the World Lab
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