I would like to show you how architecture has helped to change the life of my community and has opened opportunities to hope.
我想向大家展示 建筑是如何帮助我们 改善了家乡人们的生活 并且打开了希望之窗
I am a native of Burkina Faso. According to the World Bank, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, but what does it look like to grow up in a place like that? I am an example of that. I was born in a little village called Gando. In Gando, there was no electricity, no access to clean drinking water, and no school. But my father wanted me to learn how to read and write. For this reason, I had to leave my family when I was seven and to stay in a city far away from my village with no contact with my family. In this place I sat in a class like that with more than 150 other kids, and for six years. In this time, it just happened to me to come to school to realize that my classmate died.
我是土生土长的布基纳法索人 据世界银行的分析称, 布基纳法索 是世界上最贫困的国家之一 那么生长于这样的环境 是怎样的感觉呢? 我本人就是一个例子 我出生在一个叫甘多的村庄 甘多那时没有电 没有清洁的饮用水, 也没有学校 然而我的父亲希望我 去学习读书和写字 因此,我不得不离开我的家人 在我7岁的时候, 移居到城市 远离我的村庄 无法和我的家人联络 在这个城市 我坐在这样的教室里 和超过150个孩子 共同度过了6年 在这期间,某天我去上学 发现我的一名同班同学去世了
Today, not so much has changed. There is still no electricity in my village. People still are dying in Burkina Faso, and access to clean drinking water is still a big problem.
今天,一切都没有怎么改变 我们村仍然没有电力供应 布基纳法索的人们仍在不断死去 如何得到清洁的饮用水 仍然是个很大的问题
I had luck. I was lucky, because this is a fact of life when you grow up in a place like that. But I was lucky. I had a scholarship. I could go to Germany to study.
我很幸运。我很幸运因为 如果你生长在那样的地方 这就是生命的现实 但是我很幸运 我有奖学金 我能够去德国留学
So now, I suppose, I don't need to explain to you how great a privilege it is for me to be standing before you today. From Gando, my home village in Burkina Faso, to Berlin in Germany to become an architect is a big, big step. But what to do with this privilege? Since I was a student, I wanted to open up better opportunities to other kids in Gando. I just wanted to use my skills and build a school. But how do you do it when you're still a student and you don't have money? Oh yes, I started to make drawings and asked for money. Fundraising was not an easy task. I even asked my classmates to spend less money on coffee and cigarettes, but to sponsor my school project. In real wonder, two years later, I was able to collect 50,000 U.S. dollars.
所以现在,我想 我不需要向你们解释 今天我能站在你们面前, 是多么的荣幸 从我居住的布基纳法索的村庄甘多 到德国的柏林,成为一名建筑师 这是一个巨大的跨越 但是,我还能多做些什么呢? 从我还是一名学生起,我就希望 为更多甘多的孩子创造更好的机会 我想用我的技能来修建一所学校 但是,当你还只是个学生, 并且没有钱,这要如何实现呢? 恩,是的,我开始设计图纸 并且筹集资金 筹款并不是件容易的事 我甚至建议我的同班同学 少花点钱在咖啡和香烟上 而把钱用来支援我的学校项目 两年之后奇迹出现了 我筹集到5万美元
When I came home to Gando to bring the good news, my people were over the moon, but when they realized that I was planning to use clay, they were shocked.
当我回到甘多的家 带去了这个好消息 大家欣喜若狂 但是当他们知道了 我打算用黏土建造学校的时候 他们震惊了
"A clay building is not able to stand a rainy season, and Francis wants us to use it and build a school. Is this the reason why he spent so much time in Europe studying instead of working in the field with us?"
“粘土建筑是无法支撑过雨季的 可是弗朗西斯希望我们用粘土来建一所学校 难道这就是他花了那么长时间 在欧洲学习 而不是和我们一起,在田间劳作的原因吗?”
My people build all the time with clay, but they don't see any innovation with mud. So I had to convince everybody. I started to speak with the community, and I could convince everybody, and we could start to work. And the women, the men, everybody from the village, was part of this building process. I was allowed to use even traditional techniques. So clay floor for example, the young men come and stand like that, beating, hours for hours, and then their mothers came, and they are beating in this position, for hours, giving water and beating. And then the polishers come. They start polishing it with a stone for hours. And then you have this result, very fine, like a baby bottom. (Laughter) It's not photoshopped. (Laughter) This is the school, built with the community. The walls are totally made out of compressed clay blocks from Gando. The roof structure is made with cheap steel bars normally hiding inside concrete. And the classroom, the ceiling is made out of both of them used together.
我们的村民一直以来使用粘土搭建建筑 但他们从来没见对粘土进行创新改造 所以我需要说服每个人 我开始和社区的人们沟通 说服每个人 然后我们就可以开始工作了 女人,男人 村里的每个人 都参与了建造过程 我使用了传统的方法 以粘土地面为例, 年轻的男子这样站着 捶打上好几个小时 然后他们的母亲加入进来 她们用这个姿势捶打 几个小时,不时地加水再捶打 接着负责抛光的人们来了 他们花费数个小时, 用石块给地面抛光 然后你会看到完成品 非常光滑,就像婴儿的屁股 (笑声) 它可没有修过图 (笑声) 这就是社区居民们建造的学校 墙壁完全是由 甘多当地压缩的粘土块制成 屋顶结构是 用廉价的钢条制成 通常隐藏在混凝土内部 教室的天花板是由 上述两种材料共同制成的
In this school, there was a simple idea: to create comfort in a classroom. Don't forget, it can be 45 degrees in Burkina Faso, so with simple ventilation, I wanted to make the classroom good for teaching and learning. And this is the project today, 12 years old, still in best condition. And the kids, they love it.
在这所学校, 一个简单的概念就是 让教室是个舒适的地方 别忘了,学校在布基纳法索, 最热的时候有45 度 因此需配有简单的通风系统 我想让教室 适合教学和学习 今天,这个项目 经过12年 , 仍处于其最佳状态 孩子们非常喜爱它
And for me and my community, this project was a huge success. It has opened up opportunities to do more projects in Gando. So I could do a lot of projects, and here I am going to share with you only three of them.
对我和村民们来说 这项目是一个巨大的成功 它为我们在甘多做更多的项目 创造了更多机会 所以我做了很多项目 我想在这里与你们分享 其中的 3 个
The first one is the school extension, of course. How do you explain drawings and engineering to people who are neither able to read nor write? I started to build a prototype like that. The innovation was to build a clay vault. So then, I jumped on the top like that, with my team, and it works. The community is looking. It still works. So we can build. (Laughter) And we kept building, and that is the result. The kids are happy, and they love it. The community is very proud. We made it. And even animals, like these donkeys, love our buildings. (Laughter)
第一个当然是学校的扩建 你要如何向不识字 也不会写字的人们 解释图纸和工程? 我开始制作一个模型 创新之处是建造一个粘土拱顶 然后,我跳上了顶部 和我的团队一起跳,拱顶能够支撑(我们的重量) 村民们一直看着它。它仍然坚固不倒 这样一来,我们就可以开工了(笑声) 我们不断地搭建,这就是成品 孩子们都很高兴,他们很喜欢它 村民们非常自豪。我们做到了 甚至动物,像这些驴 也喜爱我们的建筑 (笑声)
The next project is the library in Gando. And see now, we tried to introduce different ideas in our buildings, but we often don't have so much material. Something we have in Gando are clay pots. We wanted to use them to create openings. So we just bring them like you can see to the building site. we start cutting them, and then we place them on top of the roof before we pour the concrete, and you have this result. The openings are letting the hot air out and light in. Very simple.
我要介绍的下一个项目 是甘多的图书馆 现在,我们试着去 为我们的建筑加入更多不同的概念 但我们往往没有太多的材料 在冈多,我们有很多陶土罐 我们想用陶土罐来制造一些通风口 所以我们把它们带到建筑工地 就像你看到的这样 我们切割这些罐子 然后将其放在屋顶上 在我们浇筑混凝土之前 就成了这样 通气口让热空气排出去 让光线穿透进来 非常简单
My most recent project in Gando is a high school project. I would like to share with you this. The innovation in this project is to cast mud like you cast concrete. How do you cast mud? We start making a lot of mortars, like you can see, and when everything is ready, when you know what is the best recipe and the best form, you start working with the community. And sometimes I can leave. They will do it themselves. I came to speak to you like that.
我最新进行的项目 是甘多一所高中的建造 我想与你们分享 这一项目中的创新之处在于 用浇筑混凝土的方式 来浇筑泥巴 要如何浇筑泥巴呢? 我们开始制造大量的灰浆, 正如你们所见 当一切都准备就绪 当你找到了最好的配方 和最佳的形态 就可以开始和村民们一同工作了 有时我可以离开 他们能够自己完成 就像我来到这里发表演说
Another factor in Gando is rain. When the rains come, we hurry up to protect our fragile walls against the rain. Don't confound with Christo and Jeanne-Claude. It is simply how we protect our walls. (Laughter) The rain in Burkina comes very fast, and after that, you have floods everywhere in the country. But for us, the rain is good. It brings sand and gravel to the river we need to use to build. We just wait for the rain to go. We take the sand, we mix it with clay, and we keep building. That is it.
冈多的另一个气候因素是雨 当大雨来临 我们急着去保护我们易碎的墙 不被雨淋 不要和克劳德夫妇的艺术混淆 这只是我们保护墙的方式 (笑声) 布基纳法索的雨来势汹汹 大雨之后就会有洪水 整个国家都是这样 但对我们来说,雨是好事 它让河流堆满砂和碎石 正是我们需要的建筑材料 我们只要等到大雨过后 收集沙子,和粘土混合 然后继续建造 就是这样
The Gando project was always connected to training the people, because I just wanted, one day when I fall down and die, that at least one person from Gando keeps doing this work. But you will be surprised. I'm still alive. (Laughter)
冈多的项目自始至终都在培训村民的技能 因为我只是希望某一天, 如果我倒地死亡 甘多至少有一个人 能继续这项工作 但你们感到惊讶的是,我还活着 (笑声)
And my people now can use their skills to earn money themselves. Usually, for a young man from Gando to earn money, you have to leave the country to the city, sometimes leave the country and some never come back, making the community weaker. But now they can stay in the country and work on different building sites and earn money to feed their family. There's a new quality in this work.
村民们现在可以用他们的技能 来赚钱 通常情况下,如果一个甘多的 年轻男子想赚钱 他就必须背井离乡到城市去 有时他们离开了家乡 就再也没有回来 这使社群关系变得松散 但现在他们可以留在村庄 在不同的建筑工地工作 赚钱来养活他们的家人 这项工作中有了新的性质
Yes, you know it. I have won a lot of awards through this work. For sure, it has opened opportunities. I have become myself known. But the reason why I do what I do is my community.
是的,你知道这点 通过这些项目, 我赢得了许多奖项 肯定的是,它创造了一些机会 也为我带来了名声 但是我做这些事的动机 是为了我的家乡
When I was a kid, I was going to school, I was coming back every holiday to Gando. By the end of every holidays, I had to say goodbye to the community, going from one compound to another one. All women in Gando will open their clothes like that and give me the last penny. In my culture, this is a symbol of deep affection. As a seven-year-old guy, I was impressed. I just asked my mother one day, "Why do all these women love me so much?" (Laughter) She just answered, "They are contributing to pay for your education hoping that you will be successful and one day come back and help improve the quality of life of the community." I hope now that I was able to make my community proud through this work, and I hope I was able to prove you the power of community, and to show you that architecture can be inspiring for communities to shape their own future.
当我还是个孩子的时候 我去城里上学 每个假期我都会回到甘多 到每个假期结束的时候 我不得不和村里的人们告别 挨家挨户地去告别 甘多所有的妇女都会像这样打开她们的口袋 把身上仅有的一枚硬币给我 在我的文化里, 这象征着感情的深厚 作为一个七岁的男孩, 这是印象深刻的 一天我问我的母亲 "为什么所有这些妇女都这么爱我?" (笑声) 她回答说 "她们想要为你的教育支出作点贡献 希望你学有所成 某一天会回到村里 帮助改善社区的生活质量。” 希望现在我值得村民们 为我感到骄傲 通过这些项目 我希望能够证明 社群的力量 并告诉你们 建筑可以激励村民们 去建造属于自己的未来
Merci beaucoup. (Applause) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause)
非常感谢(掌声) 谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。 谢谢。谢谢。(掌声)