The 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to Diabedo Francis Carlyle, the first time the Nobel Prize of architecture has been awarded to an African architect. Building beautiful, practical houses on relatively barren land that respect the wisdom of local traditional life, the architect from the impoverished countryside of Burkina Faso, West Africa, won the "highest honor in the industry".
A few days ago, Carlyle was interviewed by a reporter from the Beijing News. In China's rural areas, there are also many urgent rural construction problems, and those villages that have just escaped absolute poverty also have a strong demand for building beautiful homes. Surprisingly, Carlyle, who often builds houses in distant Africa, has come to China, and recently has a desire to learn Chinese and understand Chinese history, "Of course, There are differences between China and Africa, but there are more similarities than differences, and we should learn from each other." When it comes to Chinese rural construction, he has his own advice, "I think China has been focusing on creating cities for a while, and has achieved incredible construction achievements, but now may be the time to go back to the countryside and learn some 'traditional crafts' and cultivate more young and excellent architects to create spaces that connect the future with the past."
Carlyle won the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize, and his first building was built for his hometown of Gando Village. Courtesy of respondents
His hometown of Gando village is the driving force behind his work
The Pritzker Prize jury said of this year's winner, Carlyle: "Francis Carlyle has pioneered sustainable architecture on land of extreme scarcity. 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 "land of extreme scarcity" in the review refers to Carlyle's hometown of Burkina Faso, an African country on the edge of the Sahara Desert, one of the poorest countries in the world. The local dry season is long, the rainy season is short but the precipitation is concentrated, and the clay houses where the local people live often collapse after a rainy season.
Carlyle was born in 1965 in a village called Gando. At that time, gando village had no electricity, no drinking water, and few educational resources. Carlyle was one of the first people in the village to have the opportunity to go to school and receive an education. Whenever it was time to leave the village before school started, Carlyle would go door to door with the villagers, and the women would open their pockets and give him the only coin they usually had, which impressed Carlyle. When Carlyle asked her mother why everyone loved him so much, she replied, "They want to contribute to your education, they hope that you will succeed in your studies, and one day return to Gando to help the people in the village improve their lives."
Carlyle really did not live up to the expectations of the villagers, he won a professional carpentry scholarship, and went to Germany to study, and eventually became a good architect, he can really give back to his hometown. In the interview, Carlyle told the Beijing News reporter that to this day, his hometown is still the most important driving force for his work, "My first building was made for the villagers, and everything after that has a little shadow of Ganduo." ”
Architecture can inspire the countryside to create the future
Carlyle's first building was a school in his hometown. While studying in Germany, Carlyle wanted to do something for the village of Gando. He founded a foundation to raise money among his classmates and teachers, asking them to spend less money on coffee and cigarettes and use the money to support the construction of rural schools. Two years later, Carlyle raised $50,000.
Knowing that Carlyle returned with money to build his hometown, the villagers were very much looking forward to it, but when they heard that he was going to build a house with clay, the villagers were shocked, "Clay houses can't support the rainy season, is this the result of his study in Europe for so long?" ”
"Although the villagers have always used clay to build houses, they have never innovated with clay." The school Carlyle built in Gando, the floor is paved with local clay, after repeated pounding, it eventually becomes as smooth as the skin of a baby; the walls, made of clay bricks; the outer layer of the roof, with cheap steel bars plus concrete, the inner ceiling is made of clay bricks, and the design of the double-layer roof is like adding a natural air conditioner to the classroom... Unique designs improve the hot classroom environment. Now, even in the hottest days of Burkina Faso, the temperature outside reaches 45 °C, and the temperature in the classroom is 37 °C, which is "suitable" for locals. The children loved the school, originally designed for 100 children, and two years later, it attracted 400 children to school. Carlyle later carried out a number of projects such as school expansion and Gando Library, and during the construction of Gando High School, Carlyle poured mud by pouring concrete and found the best recipe and form.
Carlyle's school in Gando Village uses a unique design to improve the hot classroom environment. Courtesy of respondents
Like china's countryside, Burkina Faso is also plagued by rural exodus. In the construction process of each building in Gando, Carlyle's most troublesome task is to train the villagers with the corresponding skills. "One day I'm gone, and the villagers can continue the work," he said. Now many young and professional villagers in their hometown have become a sought-after labor force, they no longer have to leave their hometown to work, and they can earn money to support their families at the construction site in their hometown. ”
In the interview, Carlyle said: "I hope I am now worthy of the villagers' pride in me." He hopes that more people can see the community strength of the villagers through these projects, and that more people will realize that the building itself can inspire the villagers to create their own future.
The "opportunists" of building materials
Because of his experience growing up in the countryside, Carlyle's architecture has sought to adapt to local conditions, and he told reporters that he is a "material opportunist.". He used cheap and accessible clay to build schools for Gando's children, used branches that could be reborn to make "skin" for classrooms, used dead trees to make pavilions, used funnel-shaped roofs to recycle rainwater for watering...
Carlyle's medical center for his hometown. Courtesy of respondents
"While Burkina Faso faces many challenges, it is also one of the most resilient and storied countries." Carlyle said that in Gando, where he grew up, people live in clusters of houses, many of which are more than a hundred years old, and these yards will be reduced or increased according to people's needs, but will not disappear, and their designs are largely influenced by the architectural traditions of their hometown.
On the official website of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, a photograph of Carlyle's school in Gando construction was hung prominently. Carlyle's work has also entered more countries, and more people have learned about the Architectural Philosophy of the African architect. In fact, the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize's renewed focus on architectural practice may in itself represent a major shift in Western architecture.
In Montana, the Carlyle DesignEd Arts Center Pavilion is made from dead local trees, which have been used by locals to build houses, but can only be used to make paper in modern times. Carlyle found ways to prefabricate the wood and give it new life. In winter, when viewed from above, wooden pavilions fall like giant petals in the middle of the snow.
In 2017, Carlyle was invited to design the Serpentine Gallery in London, using the large cantilevered roof he usually uses in Africa and designing it in a funnel shape to collect rainwater for watering green space. He said there was no reason for both poor and rich countries to waste resources.
Carlyle-designed Serpentine Gallery. Courtesy of respondents
Carlyle has also built another school in Burkina Faso. There is a general lack of wood throughout the country, but there is a special local plant that, when cut from the bottom, the new branches will grow very straight and are often used as scaffolding, and Carlyle wants to make these trees more useful. The women of the village joined the project of building the school, they took care of the plants, the branches eventually became the skin of the classroom, it filtered out some of the heat without hindering the sunlight, and the school became a very cool building.
At present, Carlyle lives in Germany, but often returns to Burkina Faso and back to Gando, "I hope that people there will no longer leave their hometown because of the difficulties of life, but only because they want to understand the world, want to explore the world, I want to work for such a world." 」 ”
If you want to learn Chinese read Chinese history
China was mentioned in the interview, and Carlyle said it was no stranger. He said that he visited China in 2016 and went to Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities at that time, and he was deeply impressed by the electric bicycles and electric scooters that passed through the streets. "I think Chinese pioneer in battery-powered vehicles, and I feel uplifted and encouraged by the electric vehicles that travel around the city."
During the trip, Carlyle especially enjoys observing the surrounding architecture, and traveling in China is no exception. When seeing that there are a large number of buildings under construction in China, Carlyle feels that he can understand the design and architectural challenges that China is facing, and when the population is rapidly pouring into the city, architecture must respond to this in a special way, and there are many excellent cases, of course, there are some quick buildings. However, Carlyle believes that Chinese architects can solve a series of complex problems.
China's vast rural areas are particularly of Carlyle's attention. He argues that China has been focusing on creating urban structures for some time, and that the construction of infrastructure over the past few decades has been incredible, mostly by labor from the countryside, but now it's time to feed back to the countryside so that the countryside can also benefit.
"The experience of the urban center can be applied to the countryside and vice versa, all of which are interconnected and cyclical." Carlyle believes that China may have reached a time to return to the countryside to learn the "old crafts" that have been passed down for many years. "The countryside is always a place where people can recharge and go, and it's also a place where there's time and space to really study the craft without getting distracted, and people need the countryside, which is the source of a lot of innovation." If the countryside disappears, it will cause problems for all. ”
Carlyle believes that China may be able to produce more outstanding young architects, so that they can focus on innovation and care, both to pass on traditional knowledge, but also to use their professionalism to create a space that connects the future with the past. He believes that for a long time, China and African countries have established friendly and cooperative relations, which are based on their long history, symbiosis with nature and demographic structure, and other commonalities, and that There are "more similarities than differences" between China and Africa, and "Chinese and African architects should also come together more, learn from each other, and do something for development together." ”
It's been six years since he traveled to China, and Carlyle has been looking forward to returning and plans to take the time to teach himself Chinese. Chinese architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu are good friends of Carlyle. "Wang Shu often talks about Chinese philosophy and calligraphy in his exchanges with me, which is desirable," Says Carlyle, "If I try to learn some Chinese, I can also read the incredibly long history of China, and even visit China's cities and villages without the need for translation, which makes me particularly look forward to this scene, and I look forward to more exchanges and cooperation with Chinese experts in the field of architecture." ”
Beijing News reporter Geng Ziye
Edited by Zhang Shujing Proofread by Liu Baoqing