Avery Hall, The Graduate School of Architecture, Columbia University
New York, USA
3 February 2009
The Goethe-Institut New York, a branch of the Federal Republic of Germanyʼs international cultural institution, has announced the season premiere of its hit series, “What is Green Architecture?” which spotlights next-wave pioneers in the field in conversation with curator and host Andres Lepik.
“What is Green Architecture?” brings architects and engineers to New York in order to give audiences the exclusive privilege to travel the globe via projects of the future, from Harvard’s transformative Allston Science Complex to the first carbon-neutral city, currently taking shape in the United Arab Emirates.
Berlin-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré will deliver a lecture - “Step by Step: Building Schools in Africa,” addressing his current award-winning project in his native Gando Village, Burkina Faso.
The lecture will be followed by a discussion with Andres Lepik. Admission is free, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Diébédo Francis Kéré asserts that his fondest desire as an architect is to build projects in his own village, Gando, located in the West African country of Burkina Faso, “which is one of the ten poorest countries in the world and has an illiteracy level of over 80%.”
To achieve sustainability, he notes that “the projects are based on the principles of designing for climatic comfort with low-cost construction, making the most of local materials and the potential of the local community, and adapting technology from the industrialized world in a simple way.”
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