Burkinabe becomes first African to win prestigious architecture award

An African has for the first time won the world’s most prestigious architecture prize, the Pritzker Prize.

The winner is Diébédo Francis Kéré, a Burkina Faso-born architect who also holds German nationality.

The -year-old Kéré said he was the “happiest man on this planet” to win the award in its more than 40-year history.

“I have a feeling of an overwhelming honour but also a sense of responsibility,” the 51st recipient of the award stated in an interview with the AFP news agency.

The architect’s works include the national assemblies of Burkina Faso and Benin which have been commissioned, the BBC Africa page reported.

In announcing the winner, the jury said the architect “raises fundamental questions of the meaning of permanence and durability of construction in a context of constant technological changes”.

Mr Kéré was praised by members of the jury for combining his architectural works “with the traditions, needs and customs of his country”.