Diébédo Francis Kéré Receives 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize

The “Nobel Prize for architecture,” the Pritzker goes to the unlikeliest place on Earth, landlocked Burkina Faso and its native son, Diébédo Francis Kéré.

Burkina who, you might ask. You are not alone. Burkina Faso has this entry in the CIA World Factbook:

“By late 2021, insecurity in Burkina Faso had displaced 1.4 million people and led to significant jumps in humanitarian needs and food insecurity. In addition to terrorism, the country faces a myriad of problems including high population growth, recurring drought, pervasive and perennial food insecurity, and limited natural resources. It is one of the world’s poorest countries.”

So a country with dirt roads and mud huts now has an entry into architecture’s most hallowed clubs? Has the world become apologetic, or simply gone mad?

Kéré, a black man, stands out in the gallery of previous winners of the Pritzker: mostly white males and a few women. Asians seem to have been allowed into the club for a few years and constitute a small minority but perhaps only because Japan, a country that has played nicely with the West (since WWII, anyway), has long upheld aesthetics standards over simple survival.

Forgive me for noticing. Living as a minority in the US and the UK, I’m a tad sensitive to race issues.  

What country has the most architects per capita? (Picture courtesy of ArchDaily)

I am not first to study this issue on the basis of region, if not race. ArchDaily did it over 8 years ago and discovered China has the most number of architects per inhabitant, with one architect for every 40,000 people. The US is 13^th, with each architect serving 1300 people. As you might expect, super style conscious Italy has the most: one architect for only 414 people. Strangely and conspicuously absent is India. But what do you expect for a country that may not even acknowledge architecture as a noble calling?

From my days in India, if you were not a doctor, engineer, your parents could not have bragged about what you did in the matrimonial.  In recent years, IT and tech may have been included in along with a man’s marriageable assets,  but architects…?

As Larry David might say, “Umm….we're thinking about it.”