Forster Ndubisi, with interests in the arts and biology, years ago “noticed a sharp contrast in the quality of the built and natural environment” between his native Nigeria and London, where he visited as an undergraduate.
“I wanted to do something that would help to manage that natural and built environment, so I started asking around,” he said. His search led him to landscape architecture, and he’s now professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Design Institute at WSU Spokane.
While pursuing landscape design at the University of Guelph in Toronto, Ndubisi again noticed “subtle differences in how people think of time and place” between Nigeria and Canada. “For example, in Nigeria people use landmarks to give directions instead of using cardinal directions.”
Observations like these inspired Ndubisi to research the role of culture in environment and design. Eventually, the student from Nigeria became an expert on collaborative design with American Indian (First Nations) communities in Canada.
With his sensitivity to the nuances of culture already heightened, Ndubisi learned to pay attention to the details, to learn who is influential in the community, and to take his cues from them. “Elders are influential,” he said, “so I get a sense of how elders perceive and read the landscape.”
The implications of his planning policy work extended beyond the communities he worked with in Canada. “I learned what things you should pay attention to. You have to embrace the culture and use it as the basis of design, so that the place created is lodged in their sense of time and place.”
After earning his Ph.D., Ndubisi found a position for 10 years at the University of Georgia that offered everything he was looking for — equal parts teaching, research and community design work.
Increasingly interested in the effects of globalization — especially rapid urbanization and the fragmented landscape that results — he became convinced that the complexity of design and planning work was escalating. “One person can no longer do everything,” he emphasized. “No, No, No. We have to acknowledge and work collaboratively with others to solve problems — the whole is created from smaller parts.”
The desire to foster communication between design disciplines inspired Ndubisi to take on the first directorship of the Interdisciplinary Design Institute at WSU Spokane — a position he has held since 1997. The institute brings together students and faculty from the disciplines of landscape architecture, architecture, interior design and construction management.
Not surprisingly for a man interested in group dynamics, Ndubisi views teachers as “facilitators of knowledge and skill development. A good teacher enjoys the interaction with students and the process. It is important to have an empathetic understanding of your students’ needs — to be able to listen.”
Ndubisi said the greatest challenge facing landscape architects is that of “balancing our human needs with maintaining and sustaining the quality of the natural and built and environments. Solutions about nature should embrace humans because humans are part of nature.
