The Goethe‑Institut’s new Dakar building is more than a new address: arranged around a baobab tree, the complex creates an open, welcoming setting for cultural education and exchange that respects local traditions while projecting a global outlook.
The institute has served Dakar since the mid-1970s. Its latest sustainable campus, built with United Nations support, demonstrates how contemporary public architecture can respond to local climate, craft and community needs.
Francis Kéré: sustainability as a design principle
Seven years ago Francis Kéré sketched the first concepts for the site on a sandy lot in Dakar. The Burkina Faso–born Pritzker Prize laureate (2022) and Praemium Imperiale recipient set out to merge contemporary architecture with African building practices. He turned to a traditional, climate-adapted material: clay. By combining Senegal’s red soil with a small proportion of cement and forming pressed-earth bricks, Kéré produced uniform masonry that reads as modern while remaining unmistakably rooted in place.
Choosing clay was deliberate: earthen construction provides passive thermal comfort and reduces reliance on energy-intensive mechanical cooling. The design favors shaded façades, interconnected courtyards and cross-ventilation; only a few structural elements use reinforced concrete. The pressed-earth walls help stabilize interior temperatures and echo Sahelian building techniques.
Local delivery and bioclimatic expertise
Construction was led by Dakar-based Worofila, the practice founded by Nzinga Mboup and Nicolas Rondet that specializes in bioclimatic design. Their approach prioritizes passive cooling strategies, cross-ventilation and the use of local materials. Open courtyards and thick earthen walls create airflow patterns that keep interiors cool during the day and slowly release stored coolness into the evening. As Mboup has noted, building with earth reconnects occupants to material and environment in a way that must be lived to be fully appreciated.
A demonstration project for Africa’s urban future
The Goethe‑Institut project aims to prove that sustainable, large-scale construction is feasible even under the pressures of rapid urban growth and a changing climate. Dakar is one of Africa’s fastest-growing metropolitan regions and faces housing shortages, rising temperatures and higher CO₂ emissions tied to widespread concrete use and energy-hungry air conditioning. Scholar Lesley Lokko has emphasized the need to use the intense time pressures of urbanization to drive immediate, practical change.
The new building is meant as a model: a place where ancestral knowledge, contemporary technology and social responsibility come together on Africa’s red soil. After years of planning and construction, the Goethe‑Institut in Dakar is scheduled to open on April 18, 2026. The institute in Senegal also coordinates cultural activities in The Gambia, Cape Verde and Guinea‑Bissau.
This article was originally written in German.