At the back of the perennial flooding incidents experienced in the country, Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been urged to use experts in the ‘built environment’ in planning local development.
According to the Principal Architect and Co-founder of Spectra Global, William Evans Halm, a lot of the environmental problems often arise due to the failure to employ those with professional know-how in the right places.
While it is believed that most people know the role of architects, the challenge has been the lack of interest to deploy these experts in the designing of the environment.
It is against this background that Mr. Halm encouraged MMDAs and state institutions whose work relates to the environment to engage architects in their work.
For instance, he observed that the lack of planning leading to unending concreting of most open surfaces including wetlands among other things have worsened the flooding situation.
In view of this, he said “We need to bring the right expertise to deliver the solutions for implementation.
Mr. Halm who was speaking in an interview at the back of a seminar for members of the Architecture Students Association of Ghana, at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), also called on students to expand their scope while in school to deepen their employability and entrepreneurial skills.
The seminar was organized by Spectra Global, an architectural firm as part of efforts to bridge the gap between academia and industry.
“Unfortunately, in our part of the world, industry is ahead of academia unlike in other places where research has propelled academia ahead of the industry,” he stated.
He, therefore, explained that the forum among others was meant to help students to understand what industry expects of them; see in real-life what they are learning results in while exposing them to the future of the industry.
The co-founder of Spectra Global entreated students to explore avenues within the architectural field in order to survive the world of work.
He observed that students need to align their attitude to the expectation of industry and charged them to ride on the back of emerging technologies to excel in the world of work.
The President of the Architecture Students Association of Ghana, KNUST branch, Henry Kofi Dansu, acknowledged that the seminar is expected to provide industry insights to architectural students as well as the construction field.
“A programme of this type is very important to architectural students in the sense that the course is broad,” therefore, this will provide the avenue for students to begin to identify where their passion lies as they graduate to face the industry.
Kofi Dansu was hopeful that the participants, following the opportunity provided will begin to develop a practical mindset on how to go about their studies, in order to properly position them for the industry.
The seminar was organized by the Architecture Students Association of Ghana in partnership Spectra Global as part of the annual design week celebration.
