Lessons learned

Grant Wanzel is the former dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning. (Annie Burns-Pieper Photo)

Students and professors in the Faculty of Architecture and Planning held a launch last week for a new publication, A Comparative Study of Two Communities in The Gambia: Half-Die and Old Jeshwang. The launch served to present the work of the Bachelor of Community Building and Design program, created and jointly run with The Gambian Technical Training Institute, and to celebrate the much loved and respected outgoing dean, Grant Wanzel.

The Bachelor of Community Building and Design program is run in The Gambia, although the first degrees will be awarded from Dalhousie. Three former Dalhousie architecture students from The Gambia teach this three-year degree course in a country which prior to this program had very few trained architects and planners. The West African country is one of the smallest and poorest countries in Africa. Like many countries in the global south it is rapidly urbanizing and in desperate need of practical solutions to expand sustainably.

“We can affect the lives of a lot of people (through this program),” says Prof. Wanzel, who joined the teaching faculty of the School of Architecture, in what was then the Nova Scotia Technical College back in 1973. “This is a place where the successes and failures of student work truly have large impacts on the communities they live in."

The students who participate are living within the communities and do participatory research to use local knowledge to create appropriate solutions for improving life on the ground. Projects range from market stall design to recycling projects to housing compounds. The Gambian students make use of easily available, often recycled, building materials and take culture and tradition into consideration in the planning of these projects. The project is funded mainly by the Canadian International Development Agency.

After talks presenting the specific work being done in two communities in The Gambia, a moving wall rolled away to reveal a jazz ensemble and a new canoe—marking the transition from the presentation to a celebration of the former dean. A slideshow was presented of facebook messages collected from faculty, friends and students to say goodbye and thank you to someone who has had a huge impact on the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, here in Halifax and in The Gambia.