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Diébédo Francis Kéré
He is the 2022 Pritzker Prize winner. This is the first black architect in the history of the Prize and the first architect from Africa.
▲ Gando Elementary School Arquitecturaviva
When people are curious about his work, you will see a pile of red, earthy houses, and even the materials used to make them are extremely local and cheap clay. In the case of Carlyle's first inaugural project, Gando Elementary School, such works lack imagination in appearance and construction, and the overall atmosphere is not related to the sense of art, but in Burkina Faso, Africa, this kind of architecture has really improved the lives of locals.
▲Gando Village, Burkina Faso Wikipedia
Carlyle was born in Gando Village, Burkina Faso, one of the least educated countries in the world, with a national literacy rate of less than 25 per cent and more than half of the population illiterate. In addition, the dry season here is extremely long, the temperature is as high as 45 ° C, although the rainy season is short, but the heavy rain has washed away the house, resulting in the entire area is often no water, no electricity, no medical institutions, no schools, people's survival is a problem, and there is no money to build various buildings.
Carlyle led villagers to test the strength of clay brick arches arquitecturaviva
Carlyle is well aware of the pain points of the hometown environment, so his building is not only ventilated, spacious and bright, but also low cost, the main material is made of clay that can be found everywhere in the local area, adding a certain proportion of cement, it can be made into a strong and durable brick, and the building built with this brick can resist the local rainstorm.
Carlyle led the villagers in building arquitecturaviva
Buildings have improved lives, and the process of construction has given hope to the people of their hometowns. Carlyle not only raises its own funds and introduces projects, but also teaches people construction techniques to provide employment opportunities for men, women and children in their hometowns.
▲ Villagers are contributing to the construction of new communities ArchDaily
In the old days of Burkina Faso, young people had to leave their homes to make money; now that Carlyle has brought the project back, people can reunite and support their families.
▲2021, Kenya 'Lion' Start-up Park, Lake Turkana, ArchDaily, Kenya
Carlyle uses his architecture to show the world that being rooted in the local area, coexisting with the community, and having unlimited power.
| Are you aware of the Pritzker Prize ?
Carlyle's Pritzker Prize is recognized as the highest international award in the field of architecture and is known as the "Nobel Prize of Architecture". The gold content of an award also depends on the winners themselves, and the winners of the Pritzker Prize are basically masters of the architectural world, and the stars shine, which also makes the Pritzker Prize rise rapidly in a few decades and become the supreme award recognized by the architectural industry.
Demo of best building module at the 1979-2018 Pritzker Prize Dezeen
Looking at the works of the Pritzker Prize winners over the years, the principles of judgment seem to be self-contained, all-encompassing, and controversial: from modernism and postmodernism, from deconstructivism to high-techism. People have always had the impression of master builders as having large, eye-catching architectural works, and when they win the general prize, people will feel that it is a logical and reasonable thing, more because their works meet the needs of the architectural market.
▲Diébédo Francis Kéré ArchDaily
In this way, Carlyle's award seems like an accident.
▲2021 'Lion' Startup Park, Lake Turkana, ArchDaily, Kenya
His work is more like an architectural practice, using principles called adaptation to local conditions, which is mentioned in the first lesson of any architecture course.
| Talk about the transformation of the Pritzker Prize:
However, after studying the award words of the Prize over the years, it can be found that the values of the Prize are slowly changing year by year, so I think that Carlyle's award is not surprising.
Group photo of some Pritzker Prize winners PritzkerPrize
The Pritzker Prize was established in 1979, and in the first decade, its main focus was on the three levels of spatial form, historical significance and social function, but more mainly focused on the spiritual and aesthetic aspects of the building itself, as well as the consideration of space, and strived to be solid, practical and beautiful.
For example, in 1983, I.M. Pei
▲ 1989, Pyramid of the Louvre, PARIS CNN
From the 1990s onwards, in the second decade, as the influence of the Prize grew, the focus began to tilt more towards sociality, focusing on the different forms of connections between architecture for humans, cities, and the environment, and the judges realized that the surrounding environment of the building and even the entire urban condition had a profound impact on the human beings living in it.
For example, in 1999, Norman Foster
2003, Swiss Re Building, Arquitectura Viva, London
Since 2000, the focus of the Prize has clearly tilted towards "nature" at the environmental level, and the keyword nature has exploded in the winning words of the third decade of the Prize, and the works of the winning architects have pointed more to the human dimension in the connection between humans, cities and the environment, and have also begun to emphasize the sustainable development of architecture, so they have paid attention to its construction technology.
For example, in 2002, Glenn. Markut
1994, Marika-Alderton House, ArchDaily, Australia
In 2010, the Prize began to actively guide a positive value, and the focus of the judgment clearly shifted to architects who demonstrated the connection between humanistic care and society. The aims of his work at the levels of construction, environmental protection and urban space all turn to the people living in it from all walks of life, and even to effectively solve problems for the disadvantaged in society.
Before this, although their works also highlighted their thinking at the three levels of human, urban and environmental aspects, they were very different in style, full of flowers, and a strong commercial atmosphere, so at present, these firms and companies active in the mainstream architectural market, although they have star architects, they may not be able to win the general prize.
| Over the past decade, the Pritzker Prize has demonstrated the most representative architects of humanistic care and social connection, which I believe are the following:
Shigeru Ban, 2014
Over the years, Ban Shigeru and his "paper" buildings have been on the front line of disasters, and these easy-to-build, low-cost paper-structured houses are not only a refuge for the victims, but also a community center and spiritual habitat for the victims, giving people hope to get back up from the disaster. Ban's practice expands the scope and role of the profession of architect: they should not only work for the rich and developers, but also work for the so-called "vulnerable".
▲ 1995, Ban Shigeru Ban Architects, Japan
In 2016, Alejandro. Aravena
What really sets Aravena apart is his investment in social security housing in Chile. His architecture and designs provided affordable shelter for the disadvantaged, reduced energy consumption, mitigated the adverse effects of natural disasters, and provided comfortable public spaces. Innovative and charismatic, Aravena shows us how architecture can improve people's lives.
▲The Villa Verde, ArchDaily, Chile
2018, Bakrisina Dorsey
During his 70-year career in architecture, Dorsey has had a huge impact on Indian architecture and all strata through the design practice of a variety of architectural types, including private housing, schools, banks, theaters, and low-income housing. And out of the concern of India's poor, he set up a foundation of the same name to conduct pioneering explorations in the field of low-cost housing and urban planning.
Aranya Low-Cost Housing, ArchDaily, India
And, of course, 2022, Diabedo Francis Carlyle
Surgical clinics and health centres, ArchDaily, Burkina Faso
| Why the value of the Pritzker Prize has shifted:
The first is the development needs of the Prize itself
To be the highest award at the world level, its judges need to be wise enough and the selection process fair enough. In the first 20 years of the Prize, most of the works of the winners belonged to modernism and basically came from the developed countries of the West.
▲ Frank. Gehry, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, ArchDaily, Spain
As a result, after entering the 21st century, the Pritzker Prize began to expand its international influence and try to establish pluralistic values, and since Gehry and Zaha, people have seen the strange shape of architecture, and the chances of winning awards for strong personal style forms of architecture have been minimal.
▲ Zaha. Hadid, Meixi Lake International Culture and Arts Center, ArchDaily, China
The development of "forms and techniques" in architecture has entered a bottleneck period, and the subsequent works are almost always repetitions of previous techniques.
▲ Toyo Ito, Baroque International Museum, ArchDaily, Mexico
This requires the Prize to shift its focus to society and people. Judging from the results, the strategy of the Prize is successful, and the works of the Pritzker Prize winners in the past 10 years have reflected their own thinking and actions in terms of humanistic care and social connection, and this change of values has also broadened the scope of the Prize and begun to shift more and more to countries with low urbanization and development.
The second is historical and social factors
One of the early 20th century styles --- the Bauhaus
Walter Gropius, School of Architecture and Art, ArchDaily, Germany
History and society are inseparable. From the Industrial Revolution, the World War, the upheavals in Eastern Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union, to the global financial crisis, and now the new crown epidemic, every historical event has brought turmoil to human society, and the focus of society has changed again and again.
One of the mid-20th century styles --- Minimalism
▲ Mies. Van der Rohe, German Pavilion at the Expo, ArchDaily, Barcelona
In summary, the first thing people focus on is the economy. When the economy and capital develop at a high speed, efficiency is supreme, which gives rise to various doctrines of architecture, and a hundred schools of thought contend, and people's attention to architecture will be compared to the spiritual and aesthetic aspects of the building itself under different doctrines.
One of the styles of the late 20th century --- high-tech school
Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers, Centre Pompidou, ArchDaily, Paris
After the development of the Western economy, it will bring about the globalization of capital, and globalization will undoubtedly greatly promote the process of world urbanization. When the number of people in cities surges, various problems arise accordingly, such as environmental problems, social equity, public space, and poverty. Society's focus will slowly tilt and shift to these problems, and eventually return to the underlying needs of human beings themselves.
| Finally, what is the professionalism of an architect?
The Pritzker Prize uses its decades of shifting values to show architects the answer:
Lycee Schorge Middle School drawing ArchDaily
First, it is a rational, concrete, meticulous and continuous concern for building technology, repeatedly deliberating on space and function, and paying attention to and mastering the quality of its finished building products;
Lycee Schorge Secondary School, ArchDaily, Burkina Faso
Second, it is also a humanistic concern for all levels of society, concerned about the real group that uses architecture. Architecture is about goals rather than objects, processes rather than products. Adhering to the professionalism and social responsibility of architects is of great significance to the future development of architecture.