Health Clinic in Burundi

Kéré Architecture designs new healthcare clinic in Bubanza, Burundi, focused on maternal and surgical care for rural communities.

Built with locally sourced materials, the multi-pavilion complex is designed around natural ventilation and the site’s natural topography.

Commissioned by the NGO Ineza Clinic, Kéré Architecture has designed a new healthcare center in the Bubanza region of Burundi, about 40 kilometers north of the country’s capital, Bujumbura. Inspired by and drawing on lessons learned from the Léo Surgical Clinic and Health Centre in Burkina Faso, designed by Kéré Architecture in 2014, the Ineza Clinic will offer improved access to healthcare for the region’s rural population, with facilities dedicated to essential safe and clean delivery services, C-sections and specialized surgical care. Construction on the complex has already started, with the first phase scheduled to be completed this summer.

Burundi ranks among the world’s poorest countries, where nearly nine in ten people live below the poverty line. High fuel prices make the transportation of both materials and people a significant challenge. To design within these constraints, the Kéré Architecture team, led by Francis Kéré, visited local brick factories, welding workshops, and wood-processing plants, mapping locally available resources and techniques. This information was foundational to developing a healthcare facility that could be built efficiently, quickly, and with skills and materials already available in the region.

The Ineza Clinic is being built primarily with materials sourced from the surrounding region. The foundation and retaining walls consist of white and red granite drawn from local quarries, and walls and perforated screens are formed from clay bricks fired within 30 kilometers of the site. This keeps transportation costs low while giving the building a color and finish that is unique to the region. Local builders and bricklayers work closely with the Kéré Architecture team, refining construction methods that the practice has developed over many years.

Kéré Architecture’s plan distributes the program across ten pavilions connected by a road that zigzags up the hillside, arriving at a visitor center at the top. The road acts as an organizing spine, separating public functions from clinical and medical spaces. The massing works with the site’s natural topography: narrow, elongated buildings minimize excavation costs while preserving the surrounding landscape. Buildings are oriented according to prevailing wind patterns, maximizing natural cross-ventilation and creating comfortable spaces without mechanical systems.

The maternal care and outpatient facilities share similar floor plans, with irregular profiles that create shaded waiting areas and integrated bench alcoves along their facades. The ventilated roof system draws on earlier Kéré Architecture projects and is adapted to Burundi’s climate and its heavy seasonal rainfall. In the surgical ward, every patient room opens onto a view of nature, while chimneys provide natural stack ventilation throughout.

Eva Weissman, Founder, Ineza Clinic Burundi: “Burundi, like Burkina Faso—where Francis Kéré built the Léo Surgical Clinic—lacks sufficient medical facilities and qualified staff, limiting its population’s access to care. Women still face a 1-in-57 lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth. We are building this clinic to provide affordable and high-quality maternity and surgical care that otherwise would be inaccessible to the region’s rural population. I have always thought of the Léo clinic as one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Burkina Faso. We are deeply grateful to Francis Kéré for taking on this project and for empowering us to not only deliver urgently needed health care, but to do so within an environment that will be both architecturally extraordinary and deeply inspiring.”

Francis Kéré: “In a place where traveling less than forty kilometers can take up to three hours because of poor road conditions, having a clinic in close proximity is vital for survival. This clinic in Bubanza makes that difference. When you imagine a pregnant woman in the back of an ambulance, trying to reach care over those roads, you begin to understand just how essential nearby access to medical treatment is for the community.”

The project will be delivered in two phases: the first half of the buildings is set for completion in summer 2026, at which point the clinic will begin operations, with the remaining structures to follow in 2027. The Ineza Clinic builds on Kéré Architecture’s extensive experience in healthcare design, including the Léo Surgical Clinic and Health Centre in Léo, Burkina Faso, and the Centre for Health and Social Welfare in Laongo, Burkina Faso.