Junior architecture major Evan Roberson is currently collaborating with architecture faculty Noah Ives on a project set to be built in Uganda.
“I know he’d [Ives] been working on it for maybe a year or so before [I joined],” Roberson said.
Roberson and Ives have been collaborating since the summer.
Roberson said the project included multiple spaces under one artistic complex.
“One of them is a performance hall,” he said. “There’s also a café, a restaurant, and there’s also basically dormitory buildings or a hotel built into it as well.”
Roberson said the process has been enjoyable for him.
“It started very abstract and creative, just trying to figure out the general approach to how we want to do it,” he said. “[There were] lots of drawings at the start, but now we’ve moved more into digital modeling.”
Roberson said his favorite part of the project so far is knowing the project is getting built, along with the 3D-modeling experience.
“While we’re still in the experimental phase, you can just play with things and see what looks good, see what makes sense.”
Roberson said the next step for the project will be communicating with the project’s engineering firm to figure out the details of the project.
“It’s been a really great opportunity,” he said. “I’m really grateful for my teacher giving me the chance.”
According to Ives, the project is for the Friends of Hope, an organization that promotes music and dance in Uganda. The project is being funded by the group Urgent Africa.
“It started in the late spring of this year,” Ives said. “I was working on it for a few months before [Roberson] joined.”
“At first, this was going to be a much smaller project,” he said. “We were planning on just building a new stage on the site.”
After the project grew in scale, Ives was reached out to through a family member who was part of Urgent Africa.
Ives said he invited Roberson onto the project after having him in class.
“[Roberson] was just a really outstanding student in the class,” he said. “And I felt like I saw a good design sense, a good work ethic and an ease in learning new tools. So all those things made me feel like he’d be a good fit for the project.”
Ives said he hopes construction will begin in early summer 2025. He and Roberson will meet with a Uganda-based company to review the designs.
Ives said one of his favorite parts of the project was getting to travel to Uganda and meet the community that will use the buildings.
“It was just such a warm and energetic bunch that it made me feel excited to be doing something that hopefully helps them have a better space,” he said.
Architecture Department Chair Dr. Fernando del Ama Gonzalo said this project provides a unique opportunity.
“They are dealing with real people, with real clients, with real needs that are completely different than the needs that we have in the United States,” he said.
Del Ama Gonzalo said undergraduate research is a great way for students to learn.
“It’s a common practice, at least in the undergraduate program,” he said. “Every academic year, we work with three to five students in undergraduate research.”
Del Ama Gonzalo said that since the research work is done outside of grades and the classroom, they try to encourage the student researchers.
“We try to provide them with some money, and Keene State College is good at that, so we have a lot of opportunities to give these grants,” he said.
Del Ama Gonzalo said that he believes students benefit from research experience.
“It’s because they learn what it takes to do research,” he said. “We tend to think that research is something that happens in a very sophisticated laboratory. Research can be anything.”
“They learn things that they don’t learn in the classroom,” he added. “This is a good way to complement what students learn in the classroom.”
Del Ama Gonzalo said he wants to promote undergraduate research in general as an option for students.
“I don’t think students know that they have the ability to work on undergraduate research projects with instructors,” he said. “They need to see that they can contribute to the community.”
Emily Sloane can be contacted at
esloane@kscequinox.com
