Francis Kéré named 2025 Richard Neutra Award laureate

Francis Kéré, the Berlin-based Burkinabè architect and 2022 Pritzker Prize winner celebrated for his community-driven and sustainable designs, has just been named the 2025 recipient of the Richard Neutra Award for Professional Excellence. 

Presented annually by Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Architecture and now in its 30th year, the Neutra Award celebrates architects who have shaped the built environment worldwide. Past honorees include  Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Thom Mayne, and, more recently, Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, James Corner, and Toyo Ito. 

For Kéré, the recognition is personal. “It is an honor to receive the Richard Neutra Award, named after a personal hero and a giant in the history of modern architecture,” he said. “Neutra’s ideas have had a big impact on me. He used the word Biorealism, what I understand as the duty of architecture to serve both nature and people, which has long been a guiding vision in my own work.”

Kéré first made global headlines in 2004, winning the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for a primary school in his home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, a project built with the community using local materials. That modest start set the tone for a career that has since expanded across continents while remaining rooted in sustainability and social impact. 

His tree-inspired 2017 Serpentine Pavilion design and a slate of high-profile design awards further solidified his international recognition. In 2022, he won the Pritzker Prize — the first African architect to receive the honor. 

For Cal Poly Pomona, Kéré’s selection carries added meaning. “The breadth and global impact of his firm’s projects and their focus on community-based design is something we believe will inspire both our faculty and the future architects in our department,” said Robert Alexander, chair of the architecture program.

Kéré will accept the honor and deliver a keynote lecture at an award ceremony at Cal Poly Pomona on September 22, free and open to the public.