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Architecture News

Diébédo Francis Kéré Designs Educational Campus for Mama Sarah Obama Foundation

By Miriam Sitz
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Diébédo Francis Kéré’s master plan for the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Renderings of the early childhood development center, Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Renderings of the primary school courtyard, Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Renderings of the secondary school, Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Renderings of the boys dormitory, Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Master plan for the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation legacy campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Diagram of the early childhood development center at the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus in Kogelo, Kenya.
 
Image courtesy Kéré Architecture
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
Mama Sarah Obama Foundation Educational Campus
September 28, 2015

Architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has created plans for the $12 million headquarters of the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation in Kogelo, Kenya—an organization established by the grandmother of President Barack Obama that feeds and educates children and impoverished families.

The campus will primarily serve the 3,600-person village in western Kenya, but will also function as a resource center for the surrounding rural areas.

The first phase of the project, an early childhood development center, will require an estimated $250,000, while the second phase will focus on renovating the Barack Obama Primary and Secondary Schools in Kogelo. Later construction will add a vocational training school and a hospital to the complex.

Attention to social and cultural context, as well as the use of local materials and techniques, is a recurring theme in Kéré’s work. The architect, who grew up in a traditional Burkinabe village and is now based in Berlin, recently completed the Center for Health Care and Social Promotion in Burkina Faso.



 

KEYWORDS: Africa Diebedo Francis Kere

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Miriam Sitz was a staff writer and editor for Architectural Record from 2015 to 2020, during which time she served as the web editor, then senior news & web editor.

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