T he coasts of the Atlantic and the Caribbean include several countries which share the opportunities and problems of seaside nations: maritime economy, tourism, environmental exploitation including water pollution, erosion and ocean habitat destruction.These countries include Iceland,The Gambia, Belize, Guyana, Bahamas, Bermuda, St. Kitts & Nevis,Antigua & Barbuda, St. Lucia, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, ranging from very wealthy (Iceland, Bermuda), to very poor (The Gambia, Guyana). Dalhousie Faculty of Architecture and Planning is contacting partner nations on the Atlantic Rim which have no university level programmes in architecture or planning, and collaborating with other nations which have such programmes, hoping to both learn from and to expand their range of offerings. In both kinds of collaboration we expect to extend our own knowledge of coastal design and planning. The criteria for choosing potential partner countries includes the use of English, a secondary school system which produces graduates, the absence of architecture or planning programmes and relatively stable political and economic situation (on this basis When the Technical University of Nova Scotia joined Dalhousie University in 1999, it identified that work- ing with actual communities in coastal environments was one of its strengths.To build on this expertise it has started to look beyond its immediate region.
above: a new lever arm pump and a pulley pump, designed and built by local students, Richard Kroeker and Tm McAllen in Gunjur
moving around the atlantic rim
Tom Emodi
These design and planning exercises are the laboratory basis for a full scale program of undergraduate paraprofessional studies in design and planning -- exactly what, for example, the Gambia needs to begin to make more effective use of its resources. In 2003 we will work in Serekunda, part of the Gambian capital Banjul, a newly flourishing community with bazaar-like main streets and thousands of dense family compounds, many exceedingly poor. Issues facing Serekunda will be compared to those of Reykjavik, the thriving historic capital of Iceland, contributing to a strategic understanding of potential Atlantic Rim initiatives. We are also, with the University of the Gambia and the Gambia Technical Training Institute, developing an undergraduate programme in design, construction and planning. In some places major fundraising is involved, and in others modest fundraising efforts are adequate. Iceland and the Gambia represent one of each of these scenarios. The Atlantic Rim Initiative is an intense effort requiring involvement and commitment from increasing numbers of faculty members and students and is not without significant dangers.While investing effort in the planning and architecture of developing nations we must fuse that perspective with the issues found in developed nations and cities like our own.We are acutely aware that we are preparing our graduates to practice sensitively wherever their careers take them.The comparison and contrast between village and metropolis promises depth and richness for advanced studies in planning and architecture.
Sierra Leone is unfortunately excluded at present). The strategy of working with the countries around the edge of the Atlantic and Caribbean underpins our Atlantic Rim Initiative: the development of culturally and environmentally sustainable education in design and planning with and for Atlantic Rim nations. The long term vision is programmes involving students and faculty that operate in several countries.This allows comparative studies to be made, either simultaneously or in sequence. Cultures and climates differ — one of the interesting dimensions of the initiative will be these comparative studies. Our work in the Gambia has already been extensive.A studio with eighteen local university students, led by Jean Hill developed a strategy for heritage status with and for the town of Janjanbureh, about 200km inland on an island in The Gambia River, a settlement of historic and cultural significance in the troubled period of colonisation of West Africa.We have worked with the village of Gunjur, a successful coastal community based on boat building, fishing and fish processing. Gunjur’s water is supplied by many individual wells, some public and most private, all operated mainly by women and children drawing water using ropes and buckets, thereby polluting the aquifer on which the village depends. Using a studio course working with twenty local university students led by Richard Kroeker and a graduate student,Todd McAllen, two prototype pumps made of local materials (mostly underused or discarded) were designed and built. In Summer 2002 Dalhousie will offer two Atlantic Rim studio courses.A studio with Brian Mackay-Lyons will take place in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.The other will be in Reykjavik. with Richard Kroeker of Dalhousie and Dori Gislason, director of the school in Iceland.
Tom Emodi is Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia
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