56-year-old Burkina Faso-born architect, Diébédo Francis Kéré, became the first African to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize in early March.
According to BBC Africa, the prize is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. As an architect, educator, and social activist, Kéré’s work including permanent and temporary structures, has been erected in Burkina Faso, but also across other parts of Africa, Europe and the United States.
“I am hoping to change the paradigm, push people to dream and undergo risk. It is not because you are rich that you should waste material. It is not because you are poor that you should not try to create quality,” Kéré said in a statement released by the Pritzker Prize.
“Everyone deserves quality, everyone deserves luxury, and everyone deserves comfort. We are interlinked and concerns in climate, democracy and scarcity are concerns for us all.”