Francis Kéré was named as the winner of the 2022 Pritzker prize, architecture's highest international honor. He is the first African architect to be recognized in the influential award's 43-year history. 

"Francis Kéré's entire body of work shows us the power of materiality（物质性）rooted in place，" said the Pritzker jury（评委会），"His buildings， for and with communities， are directly of those communities-in their making, their materials, their programs and their unique characters. They have presence without pretense and an impact shaped by grace. "

Born in Gando in 1965, Kéré was the first in his community to attend school, sent away at the age of seven, after which he won a scholarship to study woodwork in Germany. He saw slim chances for a career in carpentry and switched to architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. For his final project he designed a primary school for his home village - and set about fundraising and mobilizing friends and family to see it built. He thought he owed a lot to his community. The project was realized in 2000, for about £20, 000. 

Kéré's Gando primary school set out the basic principles that would go on to define his work, using earth bricks made on site， topped with a perforated（有孔的）ceiling crowned by a thin "flying roof". He suspended his metal canopy（顶篷）above the classrooms to draw cool air in through the building＇s side windows and release hot air through the holes in the ceiling. The whole village was involved in construction, beginning a cooperative model of practice that he has continued ever since. The school won an Aga Khan award in 2004, taking Kéré to international fame and prompting him to found his practice in Berlin the following year.

One invitation after another, Kéré continues to experiment with natural alternatives to modern materials and systems, "I am constantly looking, " he said. "I am not limiting myself with a formal language. " Kéré's most ambitious buildings are still to come, despite having received the lifetime achievement of Pritzker prize.