The building sits within a residential area of Dakar surrounded by a lush garden. Kéré Architecture's design balances sensitivity to the immediate neighborhood — including the adjacent Léopold Sédar Senghor Museum — with the demands of a busy cultural institution hosting exhibitions, language courses, concerts, and informal gatherings. The building's compact two-story form is shaped to mirror the canopy outline of the trees that have long occupied the site, and its massing acts as a shield, protecting neighboring residents from noise while insulating visitors from street traffic.
The structure is built from locally sourced compacted earth blocks, used for the load-bearing walls, partition walls and a second translucent outer skin that gives the building a light, permeable appearance. This commitment to local materials connects the project to Kéré Architecture's wider practice of building with resources and techniques already available in the region.
Goethe-Institut by Kéré Architecture. Photograph by Iwan Baan.
Public programming is concentrated on the ground floor, which houses an auditorium, a cafeteria, and the library. Administrative offices and classrooms occupy the first floor. Crowning the building, a canopy roof provides shaded protection across all levels, improving thermal performance and sheltering the interior from rain, while echoing the natural, organic forms of the trees and garden below. Across all levels, the design prioritizes a sustainable approach, making sure the building leaves a minimal footprint beyond the space it physically occupies.
“My first building was a school. I have always understood that where people come to learn, they also come to meet, and where people meet is where culture is made. The Goethe-Institut exists to create spaces that facilitate meeting and learning across the world. Designing their first ever purpose-built space is a responsibility I take seriously. In Dakar, one of the great cultural cities of the African continent, I wanted this building to be open and safe, rooted and flexible, and very much alive.”
Francis Kéré
Goethe-Institut by Kéré Architecture. Photograph by Iwan Baan.
The completed facility is intended to serve as a welcoming and versatile home for Dakar's diverse communities — a space that honors the layered cultural history of Senegal's capital while inviting a broad public to participate in shaping a shared and inclusive future.
“With this new building, the Goethe-Institut underscores its role as a central player in cultural cooperation in West Africa. Our new location will offer even more space for language instruction, exhibitions, and artistic experimentation. But it will also create new spaces in a symbolic sense: for new discourse in close connection to Dakar's vibrant cultural scene. As an institution, we are proud to be embarking on this path together with Francis Kéré.”
Gesche Joost, President of the Goethe-Institut
Goethe-Institut by Kéré Architecture. Photograph by Iwan Baan.
“We are guided by the question: what does genuine collaboration between Senegal and Germany, between West Africa and Europe actually entail? And perhaps it is architecture itself that can provide an initial act of translation in this challenging field. In this process, architects, engineers, construction workers, institutions and local stakeholders work together. Architecture as something that emerges through negotiation, mediation and long-term cooperation: viewed in this light, I believe our new building could serve as a guiding star for the future work of the Goethe-Institut in Dakar.”
Dr. Stefanie Peter, Director of the Goethe-Institut Dakar
