Tasteful Friends: The First Black Recipient Of The Pritzker Prize

[quote] "He knows, from within, that architecture is not about the object but the objective; not the product, but the process," says the 2022 Jury Citation, in part. "Francis Kéré's entire body of work shows us the power of materiality rooted in place. His buildings, for and with communities, are directly of those communities – in their making, their materials, their programs and their unique characters."

Prizes are awarded according to skin color and agenda, not talent.

Scroll down for Rendering of Tum Tower in the Garching Research Campus at the Technical University of Munich in Munich, Germany.

I don’t know who he is, but he’s very talented.

And prolific!

It took 2 responses for racism to show up. Tasteful indeed.

The power of education is incredible

Scroll his work. It is a well earned prize.

Work builds on itself

R6 Inclusion, diversity are new words for the same old racism. The demand that blacks. . . sorry . . . POC receive a certain percentage of awards, employment placements, promotions, appointments, etc. Which has permeated and infected not only the various public awards/prizes but government and academia. This makes it extremely difficult to ascertain, let alone judge, whether an award (or job/promotion/appointment) is based on talent or skin color/agenda.

The only racist is you and your belief that it is somehow racist to point out this latest facet of racism.

Beautiful buildings, they make me feel peaceful just looking at the pictures.

R10. If you look thru this man’s body of work and don’t think he deserves this prize you don’t know shit about design or architecture. Do you dream of living in a McMansion?

I'm fine with equality of opportunity. I feel we have that.

Since that seems to have failed, instead of questioning why the failures continue, we've jumped to equality of outcome, which is not fair to anyone.

[quote] I feel we have that.

You are wrong.

His colors are a bit drab for my taste, but I love his design aesthetic. A solid choice in my book.

I only opened this thread to see if it was another racebait thread and it is, so well done, everyone.

Why are americans so obsessed with race? Honest qiestion? Cuz I guarantee that this was written by someone in the american media,.

That said, happy congrats to him.

R10 is a sad little t roll who knows zilch about… not much, architecture included.

OP, thanks for sharing this!

I’m especially taken aback by the Serpentine Pavilion and the stools, designed to allow minimalism, as well as designed to be a continued conduit of sound via the hollow design, while allowing seating. I wonder if they can also be used as a percussion instrument for the audience to participate along with the entertainment?

Just so we’ll designed with local materials, too.

I love his work!!!

Thanks, OP. 😘

It's an international award and guy isn't even american and yet NPR still feels the need to put it in the headline.

It's obsessive.

[quote] Why are americans so obsessed with race?

Because non-white people have been brutally oppressed for hundreds of years, and people are now coming to terms with that history. It's not complicated.

I wasn't familiar with his work until this morning, r15, but reading about him, including the awarding statement, indicates that he works with native materials and traditions and has a eye towards sustainability. One interview I read quotes him as saying "participation is not just a romantic idea"--form doesn't just follow function but rather is a full partner.

That said, look at the fourth photo at R3 of Coachella 2019.

R20 but this guy isn't even american or even from a European country where he was aminority..regardless of whether he was ever exploited himself...it really IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT in this case. They are making it about race which is honestly unfair as it is a very limited view of the winner. Sometimes a man just wants to be recognized for what he does, not who he is.

Yes, I am aware that you "don't see color," R22. It doesn't change the fact that he serves as inspiration to young Africans who dream of achieving something like that.

It reminds me the Anya Taylor Joy debacle that had her being "The first woman of color" to win the Golden Globe...that shit only happens with the American media and for a reason.

[quote] I only opened this thread to see if it was another racebait thread

Did anyone say similar in 2004 when Zaha Hadid was the first female laureate?

For the first time in the 43 year history of the organization they have cast their eyes towards an Afrocentric aesthetic. Regardless of whether it is an American prize or an international prize, making note of his background and how he integrates disparate cultures is relevant. To claim that people are or should be insulted by being "tokened" ignores the imperative of cultural identity.

R19, I have a serious question…

Can you not ever just for one day, stop trolling?

What do you get out of it? It’s just so underhanded, sleazy and demoralizing to YOU.

Why? Why do you do this? Why do you take pleasure in shitting on people and topics of interest? It’s sad, because it prevents you from being whole.

Just try to give it a rest and harness that negative energy into something like exercising or painting. Anything.

You put down a man who is a creator of tangible things, and who is obviously brilliant, by using his fucking skin color as fodder to the other likeminded trolls, and that is just so inexplicably sad, because it’s a true indicator of how you genuinely feel about yourself.

We project who we are by how we see ourselves, and even an architect knows that.

Time to emotionally grow up.

R12 R18 miss the point completely. Personal opinion - yours and mine - are irrelevant to the assertion that awards, prizes, etc. are tainted by racism.

R23 so africans need to be told he's "black" to be i spired...the picture isn't enough?

R25 that's very different from just a headline saying A black man won an award from the first time as a headline. And I'm not saying his race (and especally not his aesthetic and the background behind it) is not relevant at all. It's the smplifying of that message to "Black man won for the first time" as if that was the MOST important thing.

R27, NOPE. The award is not tainted by racism. You think it is because you are attempting to erase cultural identity as a subculture of racism, which it is not, as they are two entirely different things, yet Americans are dead set on making it so for everything and everyone.

Where he is from MATTERS, as does where he built his designs and with what materials he used.

That’s part of what architecture IS, as it is a global pursuit since the beginning of time.

And my comment on R26 was meant for R10 and any other troll on this thread who are attempting to erase this architect’s creative identity by offering up his race as an obstacle to his brilliance, rather than as part of an integral facet which forms a comprehensive conduit to his brilliance.

Fuck anyone on here who cannot understand that his skin color isn’t meant to inspire YOU or ME, because it is what inspires HIM as does his culture and that’s why he wins.

So fucking sick of so many people who want to erase identity by claiming race is not a part of what creates an individual, ESPECIALLY when the person in question is black, so that ridiculous race arguments can be made.

And yep. It’s mostly uneducated or poorly educated Americans who do this, while the few who are well educated weaponize the man’s skin color by using it against the man himself, because he is of.black skin, and happens to truly excel at something.

It’s a coy, yet deceitful argument, based upon the internal struggle of a person who hasn’t superseded prejudice.

[quote]NOPE. The award is not tainted by racism. You think it is because you are attempting to erase cultural identity as a subculture of racism

Black is not a "culture", especially in tribalist Burkina Faso. But black has become the latest facet of racism, as outlined in R10, thus tainting this and other awards, whether perceived or real.

[quote]And my comment on [R26] was meant for [R10] and any other troll

Troll = Anyone who expresses an opinion you don't agree with. Childish.

Perhaps it would have been less polarizing if the headline was edited from:

The First Black Recipient Of The Pritzker Prize

To:

For the first time since it was established in 1979, The Pritzker Prize awards a black recipient.

That's fair, R32. It never occurred to me that celebrating the changing dynamics within an overwhelmingly white and male dominated profession would be polarizing

R2 didn't look at the architect's works illustrated in R1, or his sight is blinded by other things.

I have my own skepticism toward the Pritzker and other big architectural prizes, but in this case I'm delighted with the choice, Kéré's work is beautiful, and beauty is a thing that is too often overlooked in architecture prizes. His works are obviously about function and smart choices and possess strong echos of traditional architecture and local materials, but they are also quite beautiful and that beauty has a power of its own. It's solving a problem well and creating beauty in the process that inspires people, not just architecture critics and panels and people with advanced degrees in design, but people who use attend a school or visit a clinic, a library, a museum, or who live in planned housing. These building types (less museums and national assemblies) are often among the ugliest, the meanest, and the most dispiriting of architecture, but Kéré's work elevates commonplace forms to something beautiful in smart, economical ways that draw upon tradition and make bold gestures. That's what architecture is about in my mind, working a problem until there is not only a solution but a beautiful one that will give a moment's pause on seeing it.

Cheers to Kéré and to a great choice on the part of the Pritzker.

Most of the blame goes to the news orgs who describe as “Black” rather than African. I had never heard of his man before, but now I wish I had the money to commission a lake house for him to design.