ABSTRACT
The education led to Francis Kere becoming a carpenter, which in turn led to him gaining a scholarship from the Carl Duisberg Society in Germany to complete an apprenticeship in development aid. Children from the village collected stones for over a year to form the foundations of the building. Women prepared the beautiful compacted earth floors, while men made bricks. Villagers were also concerned that adobe walls would be washed away after a storm or two. The resultant ensemble of large buildings has not only empowered the citizens of Gando, but many other people throughout Burkino Faso. Francis Kere deliberately developed a contemporary architectural language for his new buildings in Gando to overcome local prejudices against local materials. One of the by-products of the fascinating situation is that the carbon footprint of the substantial buildings is almost non-existent and the material sources are completely ‘circular’.
