This school is the result of one man’s mission to improve conditions in his village.

Not only did he design the school and raise the funds to build it; he also secured government support to train people in building with local materials, and drew on the strong tradition of community solidarity to engage all of the villagers in the construction of this school for their children.

Gando, with a population of 3,000, lies on the southern plains of Burkina Faso, some 200 kilometres from Ouagadougou, the capital.

Diébédo Francis Kéré, the first person from Gando to study abroad, was convinced that education was the cornerstone of his people’s advancement.

As an architecture student in Berlin, he took upon himself the cause of ensuring that his village would not be deprived of a school, and with a group of friends in Germany, Kéré set up a fund-raising association, Schulbausteine für Gando (Bricks for the Gando School).

The idea met with a positive response and, having secured finance through the association, Kéré also obtained the support of LOCOMAT (a government agency in Burkina Faso) to train brickmakers in the technique of working with compressed stabilized earth.

Construction of the school began in October 2000, carried out largely by the village’s men, women and children.

After the school was completed in July 2001, construction of buildings for resident teachers began along similar principles.

To achieve sustainability, the project was 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.

It was also conceived as an exemplar that would raise awareness in the local community of the merits of traditional materials.