Originally from Gando, a small town in Burkina Faso in West Africa, Francis Kéré is a German-trained architect. The eldest son of the chief of his village, he has the opportunity, granted to him by his father, to attend school, despite the fact that in the village conventional Western education was considered from many a waste of time. Having obtained a scholarship to serve an apprenticeship in Germany, he continued his studies no to earning degrees in architecture and engineering. At the same time as her studies, she founded the Kéré Foundation (formerly Schulbausteine für Gando e.V.) to nance the construction of the Gando Primary School, which won the prestigious Aga Khan Award in 2001. Kéré reinvests his experience and know-how in Burkina Faso and other places on four different continents. Over the years, he develops innovative building strategies that combine traditional materials and modern engineering techniques. Since founding Kéré Architecture in 2005, he has been honored for his work with numerous prestigious awards such as the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, the BSI Swiss Architectural Award, the Marcus Prize, the Global Holcim Gold Award, and the Schelling Architecture Award. to Kéré was recognized with the prestigious quali ca of membership in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2009 and an honorary fellowship from the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in 2012. He has held a professorship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and at the Swiss Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio.

He was born to Milan in 1956. In 1980 he graduated in architecture from the Politecnico di Milano and in 1989 he received his Ph.D. in land use planning from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. A full professor of Urban Planning at the Politecnico di Milano, he has taught as a guest professor at several international universities. He was planner and member of the scienti c committee of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a high-tech hub near Moscow. Today he directs the Future City Lab at Tongji University in Shanghai. He was Culture Councillor of the City of Milan from 2011 to 2013. Since 2015 he has been a member of the scienti co committee of the Uf zi Gallery in Florence. He has been editor of the international magazines Domus and Abitare, published articles in various publications and numerous books. In 1993 he founded Multiplicity, a research agency that involves artists, photographers , analysts and investigates the relationship between geopolitics and urbanism. In 2010, called by the Municipality of the Brazilian metropolis, he coordinated Sao Paulo Calling, a project/research on informal settlements in the world. Architect and urban planner, he founded Boeri Studio in 1999, together to Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra. In 2008, Stefano Boeri Architetti was born (partner no to 2016 Michele Brunello). In 2013, with Yibo Xu, he founded Stefano Boeri China, based at to Shanghai. His work ranges from the production of urban visions to the design of architecture and open spaces with constant attention to the geopolitical and environmental implications of urban phenomena. His best-known achievements are the Bosco Verticale in Milan, the Villa Méditerranée in Marseille and the Casa del Mare to La Maddalena. In 2009 Stefano Boeri was called to to be part of the EXPO 2015 Architects' Advisory Board and in 2015, at the COP21 International Climate Conference to Paris, where he exhibited the Forest City project. Currently Stefano Boeri Architetti is engaged in several international projects and was called to to design the new school canteen in Amatrice, built with funds raised by the national campaign promoted from TG La7 and Corriere della Sera following the earthquake that hit central Italy in August 2016.