Diébédo Francis Kéré
German-Burkinabe architect based in Berlin, Germany since 1985 (born 1965)
The numbers
2 + 6 = 8
Lo Shu grid
Missing: 3, 7. Present digits repeat to show how many times they occur.
Life path 8 — The Executive
Eight is the number of material consequence — authority, money, scale, the machinery that makes things actually happen. Tradition reads it as unusually comfortable with leverage and unusually clear-eyed about what things cost. It carries the sharpest warning of the nine: 8 is described as the number most able to build something large and most able to be consumed by it, with the reading turning on whether the power is aimed at anything beyond itself.
Complete lines
Line of Feeling
A complete line in the grid.
Line of Stability
A complete line in the grid.
Line of Resolve
The 1-5-9 diagonal complete. Read as determination that survives the middle of a project, when the initial energy has gone and the result is not yet visible.
Cooperation
A complete line in the grid.
Responsibility
A complete line in the grid.
Organisation
A complete line in the grid.
Care
A complete line in the grid.
What is missing
Missing 3
Read as difficulty getting the inner picture out — the thought is complete, the expression lags. Often described in people whose written voice is far stronger than their spoken one.
Missing 7
Read as reluctance to sit with an unresolved question. Associated with wanting the working answer rather than the true one.
Vedic — Ank Jyotish
Moolank 1 comes from the day of the month alone; Bhagyank 8 from the whole date. They differ, which is the ordinary case — the two numbers answer different questions.
Surya
The Sun. Authority, visibility, the self as centre. Read as leadership that is seen.
Bhagyank uses the same arithmetic as the Western life path, so the two will always agree. That is not two traditions confirming each other — it is one calculation under two names.
In their words
I just came to Germany because I got a scholarship... to attend training as a development activist in carpentry... Imagine, there is no wood in . ...There's not a lot of trees nor wood and carpentry is very primitive ...but ...coming to Germany was a chance to escape.., to move... to escape my environment to another environment where everything seemed to be available and possible!
When I came to Berlin I didn't have my high school degree. ...I had to go again, back to school ...in an evening school in Berlin ...for 5 years ...from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM to be able to do my high school degree... to go to TU to study architecture.
The problem... is how to explain drawings and engineering to people who are neither able to read or write. So what I do is to build a ... a model... Normally I jump on top of that structure so that my people understood that it is working. It won't crash. So that is the test... to check the engineering.
In the West we are spoiled. We don't know what we have...
Another project that I was happy to do is at . ...Until that, I didn't know what is Coachella .., until that... I would say it is a Mexican drink... I have a daughter Josephine ...and she told me "...you're refusing to do a lot of things because ...you have no time ...but Coachella is cool!" You should do it.
In my culture blue is so important for a young man.., the first date... is to dress blue. If you wear blue, you go to... your lover... everyone will see you walking through the landscape, and then someone is dating this girl ...I wanted to dress this pavilion with... my favorite color.
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