TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsBurkina's 'Opera Village' by its groundbreaking architect
With its imposing, angular proportions made out of clay, the Opera Village cultural and educational project, designed by Burkina Faso-born architect Francis Kere, blends into the landscape.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A girl walks at the Village-Opera school, designed by Architect Diebedo Francis Kere, in Laongo, on March 16, 2022. (AFP/Olympia de Maismont)
W
ith its imposing, angular proportions made out of clay, laterite and other local building materials, the Opera Village cultural and educational project, designed by Burkina Faso-born architect Francis Kere, blends into the landscape.
It overlooks Laongo, a rural community not far from Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, and is the sort of groundbreaking design that helped Kere scoop architecture's most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize, this week.
In so doing, the 56 year-old, who holds dual Burkina and German nationality, became the first African to win the honour in its more than 40-year history.
Built on 20 hectares (almost 50 acres) of a granite plateau, the Opera Village is shaped like a spiral, with 26 buildings housing workshops, a health centre, guest houses and a school.
Eventually, at its centre will be a performance venue and covered exhibition area with 700 seats.
Built in the early 2010s with the aim of combining art, education and ecology, the project was the brainchild of late German theatre director and filmmaker Christoph Schlingensief.
'The simplest material'
More from The Weekender
What women want, and the gap men are still trying to close
While millennial and Gen Z women were raised to chase careers, the same generation of men were not taught to do chores or be vulnerable. How can men step up?
Idul Fitri without the excess: Finding the real meaning of Hari Raya
We're scaling back the festivities and finding more meaning this Idul Fitri.
Show up, show off and call it self-care: Strong is the new flex
With toned arms as the new status symbol, maybe it’s time we rethink why we come to the gym and pick up those dumbbells.
