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Clay, light and new paths: With the new Goethe-Institut building in Dakar, Francis Kéré has created a building that combines tradition and modernity. Contemporary African architecture is at the center of a global future.
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00:08The world needs new construction, using natural raw materials adapted to the environment.
00:14But how can we achieve this breakthrough in architecture?
00:17And what can we learn from Africa?
00:19We meet the most important minds of tomorrow, from Burkina Faso to the Venice Biennale.
00:25Let's look at how groundbreaking ideas become buildings.
00:36Francis Carré began mud construction 25 years ago, when he designed a school for his hometown in Burkina Faso.
00:43He also got everyone in the village involved in the building.
00:48The Gando Primary School uses clay bricks to make shady spots and well-ventilated classrooms.
00:54There's housing for teachers and a library.
00:56The complex is a masterpiece of simple functionality, and it's won several awards.
01:06Earthen material is used for traditional building in Burkina Faso.
01:10People reject it because they consider it a building material for poor people.
01:15So I modified its properties and had uniform bricks made, and then constructed a building that is modern for the
01:21people, but using a material they're familiar with.
01:28And that's so important. People feel truly honored, taken seriously. And then you've shown them a new way.
01:39New projects follow, like a secondary school in Kudugo. It features a facade made of eucalyptus wood, which creates shady
01:46spaces.
01:52The ensemble is arranged in a circle, resembling traditional villages.
01:57The inner courtyard is a safe place for the community.
02:00The wide, projecting tin roof covers the building with sophisticated construction designed for air circulation that provides protection from the
02:09sun and rain.
02:24In Gondo, construction on a community center for women has stalled.
02:29What next? A community discussion.
02:37Participation is a fundamental principle for Kéré.
02:43Building is a big task, and it requires many, many people working together.
02:52But it also requires many people who have experience and pass on their knowledge to the next generation.
02:59In other words, it's a communal event, a transfer of knowledge.
03:03But it's also important to know that this makes people identify with the buildings.
03:07It strengthens the sense of community. And that is very important.
03:16Finally, for the past few months, there's been activity on the construction site of the German Cultural Institute in Dakar.
03:26Nzinga and Nicola from the War of Fila office are in charge of construction management on the site.
03:31The project is being managed by engineers from Germany on behalf of the Goethe-Institut.
03:39Cooperation between Germany and Senegal is as complex as the building itself.
03:44Here, clay also compromises with concrete.
03:53Yes, we are in fact using a hybrid construction method, meaning we are building two stories.
03:59We have high ceiling loads, and it's not easily possible to support these loads with a local ladderite.
04:07And for stability reasons, we do have some load-bearing elements that have to be constructed using reinforced concrete.
04:16Nearby, laying the first clay walls proves to be precision work.
04:20The Senegalese bricklayers are professionals, but they have no experience with porous bricks made from pressed ladderite.
04:26In these first few weeks, the construction site is also a clay construction workshop.
04:32Everyone is learning together.
04:40French architect Nicolas Rondet came to Dakar because he believes strongly in the clay construction renaissance.
04:50Senegal has the internal capabilities already in place to make this vaunted leap forward,
04:57which should not involve repeating what has been done for about a century in Europe,
05:01but rather relying on its own resources to come up with a typically Senegalese response.
05:09All the clay bricks for the Goethe Institute are being made by Doudoudem's company, Elementaire.
05:15To complete the order, he's upgraded to new hydraulic machines.
05:22The Commission is creating a heavy workload in Gandigal, located an hour outside of Dakar.
05:42With a manual press, we can make about 1,000 bricks per day.
05:46Now, with hydraulic presses, we will double production.
05:49We will increase to around 2,000 bricks per day with the same number of people.
05:53And above all, what's interesting with the new presses is that we can reduce the percentage of cement.
05:59With manual presses, we use around 8%.
06:02But today, with hydraulic presses, we can reduce this to 4%.
06:08And he wants to completely replace the cement needed for stabilization in the near future.
06:13That's already possible by using tufa, an invasive bulrush species.
06:17Wet clay is mixed with dried reed leaves,
06:19producing stable blocks that create cool indoor temperatures when constructing houses.
06:24That's demonstrated on the house that Mamadou Mbaye has just built.
06:27The environmental activist is using the bulrushes to make a thatched roof.
06:32For the walls, he's using clay panels with tufa insulation.
06:44Some people say tufa is an invasive plant.
06:48But it's a very useful plant for me.
06:53You can do so much with it.
06:55We build ecological houses with it.
07:00The bulrush grows in the reed beds of the Senegal River Delta in the far north of the country.
07:06It's an ideal ecological building material.
07:10The fibers of its long leaves are tear-resistant,
07:13and its spongy tissue forms a natural insulating foam.
07:18Tufa filters water and stores CO2.
07:26I'm in the fields from 9am until 7pm, until sunset, and I can harvest a lot of tufa.
07:33We have many years of experience with tufa.
07:36Nobody knows it better than us.
07:39Tufa is very much a part of my life.
07:41I love nature, and come here every day to see the tufa and mangroves.
07:46That's why I also work here, because tufa also protects the mangroves.
07:52This versatile building material is also part of an exhibition in Dakar.
07:59The Goethe Institute is using its building site for a few days to share information about clay construction in Africa,
08:05which is currently a focus of its cultural program.
08:12The message to visitors is clear.
08:14Much more is happening on the continent in terms of sustainable architecture than the world realizes.
08:37Every two years, Venice becomes the epicenter of the architecture world.
08:42Nzinga Mbup and Dudu Dem are two of nearly 90 architects and artists
08:47that Leslie Loco has chosen to take part in the 2023 Biennale.
08:52Half of them are from Africa or the African diaspora, more than ever before.
08:57Loco has worked a long time to reach this moment,
09:00so that the rest of the world can finally recognize the potential of the African continent.
09:09For me, Africa has always been the place of the future,
09:12it's always been the testing ground for the future in a way.
09:14And again, it comes back to the point that we are simultaneously the world's youngest continent
09:19and the world's oldest continent.
09:21You know, everybody on this planet came from Africa at one point.
09:23So we have this quite complex relationship both to the past and to the future.
09:28But rather than this exhibition be rhetorical,
09:31one of the things I really wanted to bring was to bring it to the level of the body,
09:36to bring it to the level of the person.
09:37I mean, people are in architecture, it's not an abstract.
09:44The Architecture Biennale is a trade summit and insider meeting,
09:48and includes an architecture exhibition.
09:50Under Leslie Loco, it's also an art biennial,
09:53and a marketplace for new ideas and concepts.
10:06The present and future of West African architecture is displayed in an installation by Francis Kéré.
10:14In the next room, an architect from Niger shares her view of earth-building culture.
10:19Floor plans, ornaments, facades, drawn on the wall in chalk.
10:25It's traditional knowledge made visible by someone who's used it to develop a new design vocabulary.
10:36My name is Mary Nesifo. I'm an architect based in Niger and in New York.
10:40And earth is definitely perceived as the material of the poor.
10:44And so it contributes to the perception that earth buildings don't last, they will collapse.
10:48But the reality is, we have actually lost the memory of how to build with earth.
10:54And the pure proof of that is that in Niger, for example,
10:57we're very fortunate to have cities that are pre-colonial, that are several hundred years old.
11:03The buildings are still standing, people are still living in them,
11:05they've been living in there for ten generations, you know,
11:08and these are standing and they're made out of earth.
11:12Tradition is the basis for her own radically contemporary building projects.
11:17African modernism for the 21st century.
11:33All across Venice in May 2023, the constructed world of tomorrow was being discussed.
11:44For Nzinga Mboup, a new chapter is beginning.
11:47She will develop a multi-year program in urban building culture in Senegal for CCA,
11:53an influential architecture think tank in Canada.
11:56As an international curator, she's presented with totally new opportunities.
12:00I realize that I'm even less alone than I thought we were.
12:04And it's quite heartwarming to be able to also have those conversations
12:07and see that we're not the only ones asking ourselves those questions
12:11and that we're thinking collectively about how to redefine the role of architecture.
12:15So I'm a lot more involved in to be able to go back
12:17and kind of continue in the multidisciplinary approach that I have to my practice
12:22and connect more as well with the others, because there's been a lot of exchanges,
12:26of contacts, of emails, and with the true will to collaborate.
12:31Leslie Loco sets the stage for her heroes in Venice.
12:35And she clearly declares that architects from Africa must now write their own stories.
12:40Nzinga Mboup is not the only one to be inspired by this new self-confidence.
12:55David Ajay, the award-winning architect from London, is a major success.
13:00For the Biennale, he designed a wooden pyramid called Kwai,
13:04the word for forest in the Thuy language of Ghana, where Ajay's own roots lie.
13:10Leslie Loco has really created the mark to really speak about the urgency of the development of the continent of
13:18Africa,
13:18and how it can make a difference to how we see the world.
13:22She's gathered, also for me, a new generation that has not been seen.
13:26I think this is probably the youngest generation that any biennial has ever seen.
13:31It's an act of bravery, but it's also an act of, you know, drawing the line in the sand and
13:36saying,
13:37from here, we have to do better.
13:41After a meteoric rise in the West, Ajay moved to Accra a few years ago,
13:45bringing with him ambitious construction projects for the continent.
13:52One last tour of the architecture exhibition before heading back to Dakar.
13:57Dudu Demme, the clay brick pioneer, hopes that the Biennale will give clay construction the decisive boost it needs.
14:16I'm getting into the mindset where I tell myself that we need to start large-scale projects very quickly,
14:22and we want to stop building houses here and there that look nice and end up in magazines.
14:27All that is great, but now we want to move on to the next stage and go large-scale.
14:32We need to scale up, and that's the challenge for the future.
14:36I think we've proven ourselves when it comes to building houses.
14:39Now we need to build neighborhoods, towns and villages.
14:43Something more significant, much more impactful.
14:52The media celebrates the 2023 Architecture Biennale as a milestone.
14:58There are 300,000 visitors.
15:00In one aspect, Nzinga and Dudu's wishes have come true.
15:04The exhibition in Venice has changed the view of their continent.
15:08Leslie Loco's vision has been realized.
15:29David Ajay was the first architect with roots in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve global fame.
15:34The son of a Ghanaian diplomat grew up in the African diaspora.
15:38In 2019, he moved from London to Accra, near his new projects like the Bank of Ghana complex.
15:45And he went back to his roots.
15:51I made it in Europe and in America.
15:54Instead of saying that that's the zenith of it, actually for me, coming back home was the zenith.
16:00You know, it was always about coming home.
16:02And, you know, in my life, in my narrative, I had to go out, you know, I was abroad before
16:08coming home.
16:09For me, architecture is a social, political force.
16:12It shapes lives. It shapes people.
16:14And, you know, I felt, I feel that in the work that I'm doing here, I'm able to really contribute
16:21in a way that really is incredibly fulfilling.
16:25Ajay and his young team are fascinated by the diversity of African architecture.
16:30In Accra, the architect began experimenting intensely with local materials, especially clay,
16:36which he considers to be the most promising building material of the 21st century.
16:41He interprets it in a modern way.
16:49We tested a rammed earth, you know, a solid rammed earth architecture on a three-story arts complex.
16:56And that's been a kind of big surprise to a lot of people.
16:59And we're doing it on also a big office building right now.
17:02And we're scaling up the technology and the potential of what this earth architecture can be.
17:07What we do is that we open up the market and we create new opportunities and new ways of seeing,
17:12and that's really important.
17:14You know, at the end, you want it that people think that they thought of the idea and that it
17:17just is normal.
17:18Of course you use earth.
17:19And that moment when we have that in Africa, we know we've done our job.
17:22It doesn't matter who started it.
17:24Ajay also works with innovative laterite bricks that interlock with each other, enabling faster and cheaper construction without mortar.
17:31A whole series of regional hospitals is being built using modular construction methods, like here in Ghana's Ahanta West Province.
17:40Hybrid series production using clay and concrete.
17:43Is it a glimpse into the future of clay construction?
17:46For Ajay, it's a tough battle, because the ambitious large-scale project is politically and financially controversial.
17:56Exceptional architects.
17:57David Ajay.
18:01Francis Quere.
18:03Pioneers who were both required to establish careers in the West before they were taken seriously.
18:11As a boy, Quere left his Sahel village of Gando to become a master builder. Today, he's celebrated by his
18:19industry, including at this 2023 Architecture Congress in Copenhagen.
18:28Quere is the anti-star. He embodies exactly what other architects do not embody. That's perhaps why he's so fascinating.
18:36And I think he's an incredibly important ambassador for defining issues in today's world.
18:41The issue is not just Africa, but really how we can work locally with sustainable materials, and how we can
18:48take more responsibility for our own building.
18:50And that's what we need today. They are also role models, including for the younger generation.
19:02And it's a generation that is internationally connected and open to experiences from other architectural cultures.
19:09It's one that no longer wants to wait to build sustainably and collaboratively.
19:13A generation that is frustrated that it took until 2022 for Francis Quere to become the first black architect to
19:21receive the Pritzker Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of Architecture.
19:32What the Pritzker Architecture Prize has awarded me is courage, courage to keep pushing.
19:40And I want to encourage others just like Africa has taught me to do.
19:51ETH Zurich, one of the leading universities in the field of architecture.
19:56Here, Mariam Isoufou teaches architectural heritage and sustainability, and a critical view of Western architectural history.
20:05Quere's courage also inspires her own practice as an architect in her home country of Niger.
20:11When I first showed the renderings of what we were thinking about for this project, and the question was, this
20:17is going to be for here.
20:19Market stalls made of pressed clay, shaded by colorful metal umbrellas in Dandaji, in rural Niger.
20:28Long iconic, like the new mosque in Dandaji, with its masterful brick dome.
20:34Architecture that people can identify with.
20:36But for the architect, it's about much more than tradition.
20:43What is valuable about Earth, it's not that it's an identity marker.
20:49It's that it's a thermal mass that allows us to decrease energy consumption,
20:55that allows for better health actually inside, for the air that you breathe inside.
21:00It's more affordable, you know, to make it that way.
21:02This is what I find important.
21:04It's not an identity question.
21:06It's a logical and sort of pragmatic question.
21:09And this is where I see the opportunity, by really bringing together new solutions,
21:15hybrid solutions, technologically enhanced solutions that can really push this forward.
21:21After studying in the U.S. as part of an architecture collective, she designed this housing complex in Yamei.
21:27Compact living space in a rapidly growing metropolis, but sustainable, made of clay with a cool interior climate,
21:34even when outside temperatures reach 45 degrees Celsius.
21:42Nearby, there was an office building project, made of a hybrid of clay and concrete.
21:46Their architectural firm was supposed to move in there too.
21:50But when everything changed in Niger, it was just a construction site.
22:06Yamei, the summer of 2023.
22:08A coup d'etat, a military junta removed the president from power and suspended the constitution.
22:13On the streets of the capital, anger was directed at the West and the former colonial power France.
22:19The economically fragile country is isolated, its borders closed for months.
22:24Maryam Isafou has not returned to her homeland since then.
22:31This was unprecedented and so it had sort of catastrophic impact both economically, geopolitically, security-wise and on the country.
22:42And I think this is why this might take a little bit of time to resolve itself.
22:46So this is incredibly difficult, but I want to stay positive and think that this is just, you know, sort
22:52of a little parenthesis
22:53and this will pass and we'll be able to return and resume the work.
22:57The office is still in Niger.
23:00We're working remotely.
23:02Thankfully, it's working very well from that point of view, but I hope to be able to return soon.
23:07But it is, it is difficult.
23:12She continues to work with her team in Zurich, in Yamei and in her New York office.
23:19There are new projects inspired by traditional huts.
23:23An education centre for women in Liberia.
23:28And a sprawling cultural complex in southwestern Senegal is under construction, both above and below ground.
23:37Also in Senegal, construction on the new Goethe Institute building continues.
23:42As the on-site architect, Nicolas Rondé from Ourofila coordinates the work, mediates and translates.
23:50The red earth of Senegal becomes bricks.
23:52The bricks become a building.
23:58Nicolas Rondé and Nzinga Mboup coordinate the final construction work from the offices of Ourofila.
24:07For the Senegalese architect, the Cultural Institute is much more than just a building.
24:18We knew that this project has the capacity to really shift the perspective on earth and architecture, because it's a
24:26cultural institution, because it's going to be a public building.
24:29And we were just excited and wanted to make sure that we participate to the success of the project.
24:35Having, obviously, Francis Kéré being chosen, I think having a West African architect operating and doing this building in Dakar,
24:42also based in Germany.
24:43So obviously being this kind of like cultural bridge, you know, was a golden opportunity.
24:56Now the building is completed, filling with life, and the future can begin.
25:13The Goethe-Institut Dakar in April 2026, a meeting place and symbol for a new way of building.
25:21The structure puts construction with clay in a totally new light.
25:25It's a building that has grown out of Senegal's red soil, and after years of construction, it's now finished.
25:33This is a major step forward.
25:36The future of architecture could begin in Africa.
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