Under the title “Emerging City Lab: Learning from Burkina Faso”, we held a workshop with Francis Keré on 20.01.2022, who came to Weimar that semester as “Bauhaus Guest Professor” (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: Bauhaus Guest Professorship)
In the workshop, 16 students and 2 teachers from the master's program Integrated Urban Development and Design (IUDD) explored settlement structures in Burkina Faso and the question of possible future scenarios for life in the West African country. In preparation for the workshop, the students had explored 16 very different forms of settlement in rural areas of Burkina Faso. The focus was on the observation and analysis of the spatial organisation of living spaces and their relation to natural environment.
In the workshop, the students presented their spatial studies on their selected locations one after the other. Francis Kéré then put his expert knowledge of the ways of life in the villages of his home country Burkina Faso into context and discussed with the students the typical spatial characteristics of the places presented.
Francis Kéré, holder of the Pritzker Prize 2022 for Architecture, probably the most important award for architects, focused in particular on the specific socio-cultural and social characteristics and how they relate to the organisation of space. In particular, the students benefited from the rich professional experience of the Bauhaus guest professor Francis Kéré on contextual building in dealing with natural materials, which he contributed from his diverse projects. Not least due to the use of local building materials and sustainable construction methods.
The workshop included an interlude about the experiences from the Emerging City Lab (ECL) operated by the Bauhaus University with Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia: In two presentations based on current research projects, Sven Schneider, deputy professor at the Chair of Computer Science in Architecture, presented AI-based participatory planning tools for rural-urban development in sub-Saharan Africa, while Philippe Schmidt, research associate at the Chair and academic coordinator of the Master for Integrated Urban Development and Design at bauhaus.ifex, presented projects with circular solutions for sustainable, resource-integrated urban development.
After the presentations, Kéré called on the students to continue with the two approaches presented in order to break new and truly progressive ground in their future careers. Kéré emphasized how important these approaches are in order to further develop and shape solutions for the global problems of our time. After the intensive exchange, Francis Kéré encouraged the students in his conclusion to commit themselves as future urban designers and planners in the sense of a participatory building culture, especially in dealing with local traditions and natural resources.