News Roundup – Week of January 20th

Two big media pieces regarding our program popped up this past week. On Wednesday, the 22nd, an article about the UOB master planning studio appeared in the Daily Emerald, the student newspaper of the University of Oregon. The article is just a general overview of the studio’s recent trip to Gabon along with mentions of other events the Gabon/Oregon Center has sponsored recently.

Students returning from the Urban Design Lab in Libreville, Gabon in Africa have learned a whole new meaning of the phrase hands-on.

A group of 13 architecture students, led by Director of the Urban Design Lab Mark Gillem, left for Gabon on Jan. 11 for a week-long design and planning process with students and administration from Universite Omar Bongo, the country’s flagship school.

“Our students became teachers,” Gillem said. “It was a remarkable, life changing experience.”

And just today, Eugene’s daily newspaper, The Register-Guard published a guest editorial by our own professor, Mark Gillem. He gave insight on how transformative the charrette process was for both Gabonese and Oregonian students. Importantly, this was a two-way exchange of knowledge between UO and UOB attendees. Acknowledging an earlier editorial criticizing the studio and the Gabon/Oregon Center, Gillem noted that while Gabon does have a past of corruption and graft, on our studio visit we saw a rapidly changing and urbanizing country, with guarded optimism in the air.

Even the taxi driver taking students to the airport that Saturday contributed to student learning. As his dented and rusting taxi passed by the elaborate and well-fortified Presidential Palace, he asked America to open its eyes to Africa; he argued that if America was more engaged in the continent, “Africa would not suffer as much.”

As we drove past a heavily guarded military base, he openly acknowledged that the former president had serious shortcomings. However, he volunteered that the new, young president of Gabon is bringing much-needed change to the country.

The driver seemed optimistic. His hopes for continued improvement may be idealistic and naïve, but they are hopes that can transform a nation.