Five additional Prince Claus Awards will be presented to: Khadija Al-Salami (documentary filmmaker, Yemen), L’Art Rue (public art collective, Tunisia), Brigitte Baptiste (scientist & environmentalist, Colombia), Amar Kanwar (visual artist, India), and Diébédo Francis Keré (architect, Burkina Faso).
Diébédo Francis Kéré (1965, Gando, Burkina Faso) is an architect who creates buildings of great beauty that meet people’s needs. He shows that architecture can be a generous profession dedicated to increasing people’s well-being. His designs are based on ecological principles and sustainability. He uses local materials and merges local building traditions with contemporary construction techniques. Kéré engages deeply with the local community to create a sense of pride and ownership in his projects. He explains his plans and methods, trains local people in modern construction techniques and employs them in the building process, so they are keen to maintain the structures and have the skills to undertake further development on their own.
The Prince Claus Awards Committee is comprised of independent international professionals in fields of culture and development. They select the Prince Claus Laureates from among nominees put forward by the Fund’s global networks, following extensive research and the sourcing of second
opinions by the Fund’s bureau.
