J1198N Auditorium Burkina Faso

The Kéré Foundation promotes development cooperation in the village community of Gando, Burkina Faso. Gando is the birth home of Francis Kéré, the lauded Burkinabé-German architect and recipient of the 2022 Pritzker Prize in architecture. Kéré was recently awarded the 2024 Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos for his development and educational work in Burkina Faso, and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business for 2023. 

Over the past 10 years, the Kéré Foundation has built a high school in Gando so that successful primary school graduates can enjoy further education. Due to the large number of students, buildings were repurposed to create more teaching space. Therefore, the existing school campus lacks sufficient rooms for administration, teachers and specialist classes, as well as meeting rooms and a library. 

To address these needs, the current vision is to build an auditorium at the Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School campus in Gando. In the auditorium, meeting spaces will be created to bring together generations, so that young and old can exchange ideas and learn from each other. The aim is to create an open learning and meeting center, which is accessible for various events of the school and village community. Through this concept, the goal is that social interaction can be strengthened, tradition can be preserved, and new ideas can be experienced.