Francis Kéré Unveils a Multipurpose Playground in Kampala, Uganda
It started out as a straightforward idea to build a new playground in Kampala, Uganda. And then architect Francis Kéré got involved. Completed this past summer, 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.
“The key was being introduced to the community,” Kéré says of the project, the brainchild of Nicole Miescher, cofounder of the Ameropa Foundation. Open meetings were convened in Kamwokya in 2016, and the public’s wish list for the playground coalesced quickly. “You have a diverse neighborhood,” he reflects. “You realize you don’t just build a community center. You are trying to create it depending on the residents’ needs.”
After four years of planning and two years of construction, the finished complex is a fine-tuned piece of social infrastructure that affects local life at all levels. Though enclosed on all sides by walls—blank canvases for local graffiti artists who have already begun to leave their mark—the space, its multi-sport pitch in particular, nonetheless remains open and inviting, even inspiring. “It’s the place to go now,” Kéré says with pride. “The kids want to play soccer at the national level!” Low-slung pavilions flank the field, all covered by his signature butterfly roofs. These sheet-metal canopies, raised on delicate supports, provide a barrier against a punishing sun while improving ventilation (a tried-and-true, low-tech means of thermal comfort in a tropical climate). On the west side of the pitch, a covered area offers shade for watching a match, resting, eating, or dancing. Across the field, a brick building houses spaces for learning and exercise. Kamwokya Christian Caring Community, a local nonprofit that partnered with Ameropa Foundation, will oversee management of the site. Kéré donated design services.
