The Multipurpose Playground in Kampala by Francis Kéré

It started out as a straightforward idea to build a new playground in Kampala, Uganda. And then architect Francis Kéré got involved. Completed in the summer 2022, with an official inauguration on October 14, the project has grown to include open-air areas for gathering, multipurpose rooms for workshops and night classes, a small gym, an internet café, a music studio, restrooms, and a multisport pitch. Nestled in the heart of Kamwokya, a poor urban district on the margins of the city, the site is a pocket of public space carved from a thicket of dilapidated houses and zigzagging alleys.

Kéré, who is based in Berlin and was awarded the Pritzker Prize for architecture this year, has a preternatural sense for the pulse of communities. Growing up in the remote village of Gando in Burkina Faso, he developed an ear for listening to others, and shared their worries and their dreams. With the support of his family, he went to Germany in 1985 on a scholarship to study carpentry. He settled in Berlin soon after and pursued a degree in architecture, returning home whenever possible. While still a student, he made a contribution to his village: a primary school, built by hand from clay-and-cement brick and sheet metal with the help of neighbors and friends and completed in 2001. That structure, and the many others in West Africa that have followed, was sparked by a dialogue with the people who would live with it. For Kéré, every commission starts with a conversation, and Kampala was no different.

Read the full article on Architectural Digest here.

Author Phillip Denny

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