Diébédo Francis Kéré

“This structure... is simply {{w|plywood}}.., very thin steel and light and color. ...[C]olor for a festival ...is like a signal of celebration. ...You use this triangular element and you can create a shape like this...”

“{{w|Paul Tollett}}... decided to travel to... Burkina Faso even when it was a time of terrorism... [H]e traveled for the first time to Africa and... told me.., "I have this festival..., and we... want to promote architecture and art. Would you create... a structure that serves as orientation and a recreation place for our festival visitors?"”

“Another project that I was happy to do is at {{w|Coachella}}. ...Until that, I didn't know what is Coachella .., until that... I would say it is a Mexican drink... I have a daughter Josephine ...and she told me "...you're refusing to do a lot of things because ...you have no time ...but Coachella is cool!" You should do it.”

“[A] connection to this vast monumental landscape.., that is what I tried to do with this design, not to mimick, but to build a... little space within this big landscape to attract people to rest. [I]t.., being part of the landscape... and also react beautifully to... nature.”

“[I]n {{w|Montana}} I was impressed.., coming from the Sahara, trees are... so important, so meaningful, the most important things in nature or in human life. ...There was an idea to use dead forest and give it new life. ...[W]e discovered that there is a lot of wood in Montana that is just used to burn or... for other purpose than construction. ...We got them and ...try to do like ...in Burkana, taking the skin off the wood with ...a very simple tool ...We went up to create bundles.., components that we... could build.., transport... and install.”

“Here's the Xylem Pavilion in {{w|Montana}} at the site of Temple Rice Art Center. ...I wanted to go back to {{w|Burkina Faso}} and... learn from the tradition... to design the pavilion.., a gathering space where people can come.., meet and rest. ...[T]he {{w|Toguna}} was an inspiration for that... The taguna is... a landmark in the Dogon land.., the symbol of freedom, of peace... The Toguna... forced people to enter not standing.., taking away aggressivity.., by sitting you cannot be aggressive.”

“In the West we are spoiled. We don't know what we have...”

“Even the adult need[s] education. We train the young people in the technique we apply to build the schools so they can earn money. They become professionals working in different building site[s]... from... Gando, to other cities... in Burkina Faso, to the neighboring countries... Ghana, {{w|Togo}}, {{w|Benin}}.., so something is happening...”

“[I]f you build a school, this is not enough. ...[Y]ou need teachers. ...[W]e ...collaborate with the government. The government is sending teachers, and pay them. ...I have to ...provide {{w|infrastructure}}.., housing for them. ...[A]n educated person ...don't want to stay in the village. ...[W]e ...provide them with very comfortable housing, so to attract them.”

“The problem... is how to explain drawings and engineering to people who are neither able to read or write. So what I do is to build a {{w|mockup}}... a model... Normally I jump on top of that structure so that my people understood that it is working. It won't crash. So that is the test... to check the engineering.”

“How to build in a region like {{w|Burkina Faso}}.., in a country which has a... colonial past... When I arrived home, explaining to my people that I am here to build a school together with them, and I already have the money.., everybody was... over the moon.., really happy, and then I explained... that we are going to use clay.., mud. ...[T]here was shock! ...The rejection was so big, nobody wanted to speak again with me... [I]t cost me a lot of energy and... discussions to convince them that this is the only way to... respond the best to the climate, and to our need.”

“I built my... first project, a primary school in Gando.., my home village when I was still a student.., and I graduate 3 years later. ...[I]t was a sheer necessity that led me to build a school because when I leave my village there was no school and... instead of bringing presents to my village, I just wanted to give... education to my village.”

“When I came to Berlin I didn't have my high school degree. ...I had to go again, back to school ...in an evening school in Berlin ...for 5 years ...from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM to be able to do my high school degree... to go to TU to study architecture.”

“I just came to Germany because I got a scholarship... to attend training as a development activist in carpentry... Imagine, there is no wood in {{w|Burkina Faso}}. ...There's not a lot of trees nor wood and carpentry is very primitive ...but ...coming to Germany was a chance to escape.., to move... to escape my environment to another environment where everything seemed to be available and possible!”