Kéré Architecture

Francis Diébédo Kéré makes architecture through building. He teaches his community in Burkina Faso to build his buildings. He teaches his students to make architecture through the act of building. He is a symbol of hope, exuding passion and belief in the power of architecture to inspire. He empowers communities, always using local resources. He teaches the value of invention, transforming ordinary materials into sophisticated pieces of architecture. All those who collaborate with him feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Students travel with him sometimes to Burkina Faso and sometimes to other places of need due to natural disasters, always with the task of building something which will improve people’s lives. His inventive pragmatic creativity is driven by a sophisticated sense of structure, materials, and interpretation of cultural influences.
Here, Atelier Kéré makes a built FREESPACE, firstly in an asylum seekers refugee centre located in the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin and then transported to Venice. Made in wood, this adaptable ‘magic box’ has multiple configurations, sometimes forming an enclosure, sometimes opening outwards. The structure has a playful light-hearted quality like a child’s toy, which is so apt in a restrictive emergency environment. A modest architectural intervention intended to stage and host unexpected and unprogrammed social interaction.
YF+SMcN