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Young architect gets amazing oppurtunity

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The annual Serpentine Pavilion commission is one of architecture’s most illustrious honours – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with the best brains in the business to realise your designs. This is something Burkina Faso-born architect Francis Kéré is soon to experience, as the first architect from Africa to have been given the opportunity.

Kéré’s pavilion, the architect recently said in an interview, intends to translate natural elements of African urban planning into the Serpentine space – a sprawling art garden in Kensington, London. Starting from a central point, Kéré’s design splays out like a tree, its steel branches creating a canopy of shade before ultimately becoming a wooden dome.

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“The tree was always the most important place in my village,” he says, describing the inspiration for his design. “It’s where people come together under the shade of its branches to discuss, a place to decide matters, about love, about life. I want the pavilion to serve the same function: a simple open shelter to create a sense of freedom and community.”

africa in london The design aims to translate natural elements of African urban planning into the Serpentine space

Kéré’s firm is fast becoming one of the most exciting to come out of Africa. His pavilions have been central to recent exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and the Chicago Biennale, as well as African projects focusing on the sort of urban planning he is becoming world famous for.

But he’s trying not to let the fame go to his head – it’s all architecture for him, a true artist.

“I told myself, ‘Francis, don’t try to change yourself for this commission,’” he says. “Remain true to how you started, but do a little bit more. Here I have the chance to work with amazing engineers, so we can make the steel very thin and have an impressive cantilever.”

The pavilion will open in June this year. For updates, follow Kéré at kere-architecture.com

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