The deep motivation of the architect in his projects is to promote modern and sustainable architecture in Africa. As someone from a rural African community, with more than 80 % of the people being illiterate, who got the chance to attend higher education in Europe, he regards it as his duty to use his skills for the benefit of the people of his home continent.

Every child in the world is full of creativity. What children need to use their potential is education. I am convinced that with the provision of intelligent architecture this potential can be advocated. That is what I am trying to do. (Francis Kéré)

To achieve sustainability, the projects are based on the principles of designing for climatic comfort with low-cost construction, making the most of local materials and the potential of the local community, and adapting technology from the industrialized world in a simple way. With his first school in Gando, he taught the local people how to refine clay and local materials, and how different construction techniques could further improve the performance. By that, the instructed people who worked on the construction were able to undertake their own building projects without the need of outside help in the future. Soon after the opening, the school counts more than 280 pupils from Gando and its surrounding villages, this made an extension obligatory. Meanwhile the school-complex of the village is accomplished through teacher’s houses and a hospital ward.