Letters and Comment
Three years ago WIPO Magazine wrote about our school building project in the village of Gando, Burkina Faso (Inspirational Creators - Diébédo Francis Kéré, Architect; issue no. 3/2005). Many people encountered the project for the first time through your report.
Today, more than 450 students are in attendance in the school and we are nearing completion of a new building with four classrooms on the school grounds. We are also building outside Gando. This photo shows the annex of a high school that my people recently completed on the behalf of an NGO about 600km from Gando using laterite stone, a commonly used building material in this region.
This is the first paid contract that has been carried out with a young workforce from Gando who have been trained as a part of program projects carried out by our Schulbausteine für Gando (School Bricks for Gando) association. The result has been met with feelings of great pride throughout all of Burkina Faso, not just by the members of Gando community.
It is with humility but also pride that the vision with which we began a few years ago has now begun to bear fruit. This project is proof that it is possible to introduce people in impoverished communities to new technologies and to instruct them in their application, thereby, empowering them to build better and more sustainable buildings.
I am adamantly convinced that through similar projects that prove of value to people's everyday lives, we can bring about change in this region so often described as hopeless. I have learned with experience that one cannot bring about change by sitting at a desk at arm's length from the problem. In cultures like mine that are marked by an educational crisis and where there is hardly any access to information, such objectives can only be achieved through example-setting projects brought about through the cooperation of people working for people. This is not the quickest nor the most convenient way; however, from the long-term perspective, it is the sustainable way.
For the near future, as well as meeting the very large demand for the replication of our models in other villages, we hope to build and equip a research center for construction engineering in my home village. This center would be the site where materials are studied and construction techniques can be investigated. At the same time, it would serve as a training center where young individuals would learn these techniques. In addition, special attention would be paid to the fostering international exchanges with technical experts and students. With the building of this facility, I would like to see the principles of climate-appropriate building anchored in my native region long-term.
I am indebted to WIPO Magazine and to everyone else who has placed value on and provided media coverage of my work.
From Diébédo Francis Kéré, Architect and founder of Schulbausteine für Gando, Burkina Faso.
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