Thursday, 14^th July, 2015 witnessed an annual meeting hosted for the general staff of EiABC with the motive of sharing the performance report of the Institute for the year 2014/2015. The Deputy Manager, Mr. Atakilti opened the meeting with a brief presentation of the planned and achieved activities. The presentation continued with individual reports from all other Units of the Institute.

Maintenance of the kitchen equipment, improvement of ICT infrastructure, and Clinic are some of the major achievements of EiABC in the year of 2014/2015. In addition, participants of this meeting were expected to give suggestions and discuss other improvements that are needed to happen in EiABC. Like the success EiABC achieved for the three points mentioned above, the Management board is committed to continuously leave a trace of achievement in every sector.

EiABC is really concerned about increasing the quality of services to its entire stakeholders. To achieve this goal, the management board is aware that active participation of everyone is really important; to ensure everyone can be satisfied and benefit from what EiABC can achieve in the future. The full support from EiABC Management board to all administrative needs is one of the strongest point that help all staff work properly and efficiently towards this goal.

Photo by Isaac Opoku

Presentation by Deputy Managing Director Mr. Ataklti before the general staff

In July 2015 the first batch of the new master program Master in Advanced Architectural Design MAAD at EiABC traveled to Germany for an architecture excursion.The travel was conceptualised by the Chair of Architecture and Building Science and was funded and organised by the German DAAD. Under the guidance of MArch Dawit Benti, the DAAD tourguide and accompanied by program manager Dr. Petra Gruber and visiting lecturer DI Solweig Kieser ten architecture students experienced three cities, Berlin, Weimar and Stuttgart, and two German universities, Bauhaus and Stuttgart University for 12 days.

In Weimar, workshops and presentations were held with the Bauhaus universitie's INFAR institute as final event of the joint design program on the development of the city of Bahir Dar, that was carried out in the second term in the academic year 2014/15. Bauhaus and EiABC student projects were exhibited in the yearly "Summaery" event held for the public. In Stuttgart, presentations were given by the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design ITKE and the Institute for Computational Design ICD. Together, and in cooperation with numerous other institutes and companies the institutes carry out research in the fields of computational design and advanced materials processing. The group visited the institute's facilities, the robolab and the current experimental pavilion, that was designed following the biological role model of a water spider. The pavilion was produced out of a carbon fibre composite material by an industry robot using a pneumatic balloon as scaffolding.

http://infar.architektur.uni-weimar.de

http://www.itke.uni-stuttgart.de

http://icd.uni-stuttgart.de/

After a long process and after careful analysis and review of the need analysis conducted together with experts in different universities and with the external stakeholders from the architecture industry and governmental institutions, EiABC has now launched a new Msc program in Landscape Architecture. The Master of Science in Landscape Architecture program will start in the academic year 2015/2016.

The new program will address the country’s needs of producing graduates at M.Sc level in Landscape Architecture and it will play an important role in the rapid growth of Ethiopia as the country will have qualified professionals who are experts in the field. This master’s program is part of strategic plan of EiABC and it makes the institute unique in the history of EiABC as the program is the first Master program in landscape Architecture in Ethiopia. Besides, this additional masters program also serves the long vision of the EiABC as leading institute in the built environment for improving the capacity of Architecture in Ethiopia. The programs will initially take 15 students on two years study duration. The curriculum also follows within the charter for landscape Architecture Education produced by the International Federation of landscape Architects of UNESCO.

On Monday, 15th June, 2015, the EiABC Chair of Landscape Architecture hosted a workshop with various stakeholders to discuss the proposed curriculum for a new M.Sc program in Landscape Architecture, which should be launched at the start of the 2015/2016 academic year. This will be the first Master of Landscape Architecture degree in East Africa and the second in Africa. The workshop began with a welcome speech by the Scientific Director Joachim Dieter. Joachim Dieter outlined the objectives of EiABC in his welcome speech and the role of the proposed master degree within the larger objectives of the institute. He also explained the making behind this degree. Initially a Master of Environmental Planning and Landscape Design was created, but it was quickly discovered that the scope of this degree was too large to be adequately covered by master students.

After the welcome speech, EiABC lecturer of landscape architecture Yusuf Zoheb explained what the profession of landscape architecture and the curriculum entail. He expounded upon the idea that the discipline consists of three pillars: academia, the industry, and government policy. Academia provides the skills for the industry to operate as well as the ability for professionals to critically assess their work. Government policy determines the environment within which the industry needs to operate. 

Kumelachew Yeshitela, Director of Graduate Programs Dr. Fisseha Wegayehu and Visiting Lecturer Kelly Leviker, Organizer of the Conference, discussing with Guests and Stakeholder

The new degree will be a two-year, full-time degree, which will focus on the practical aspects of the profession, but will gradually accommodate more theoretical aspects of the discipline. The curriculum follows the principles outlined within the Charter for Landscape Architecture Education produced by the International Federation of Landscape Architects together with UNESCO. There will be a particular emphasis on a rural to urban knowledge transfer to ground the profession within Ethiopia.

During the workshop portion of the meeting, participants reflected and presented ideas of how landscape architecture must tailor itself to the Ethiopian context, contribute to the rapid development of Ethiopia, and mitigate the effects of climate change. The idea of infusing the degree with aspects of ‘projective design’ were highlighted as a particularly effective tactic to mitigate the effects of climate change. It was also suggested to open the entry requirements to be inclusive of graduates beyond architecture, as this will be an effective means of producing a variety of graduates, who can analysis and create landscape architecture works from a wider variety of perspectives. (ZF)