Bernard Aloysius Gouveia was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1939 and educated at St Stanislaus College, Georgetown, from 1951-57. Upon leaving school, he joined the Architect’s Office in the Public Works Department, where he worked for a year before travelling to the UK and enrolling on the five-year Diploma course at the Architectural Association (AA), in London. After his AA Second-Year, Gouveia decided to take a break from his studies, volunteering for the UN International Service, initially based in Linz, Austria, working for the establishment of refugee camps. He then joined Service Civil International, in Memcen, Algeria, assisting in the construction of a village for 150 inhabitants, together with mosque and school. After this project, Gouveia moved again, transferring to Skopje, Macedonia, to help with aid and reconstruction efforts there following the horrific 1963. By September 1964, Gouveia was back in the UK and re-entering the AA as a Third-Year student. As part of his Fifth-Year studies in 1966-67 Gouveia elected to study within the AA’s Department of Development and Tropical Studies, successfully graduating in the summer of 1967 with an AA Diploma and a Certificate in Tropical Studies. Immediately after completing his studies, Gouveia joined the practice of Oldfield and Kirby, in Lusaka, Zambia, where he worked on the National Housing Board Headquarters. By 1969 he had joining the Lusaka National Council of Scientific Research. Within two years, however, he had returned home to Guyana and was subsequently appointed the first Dean of the Faculty of Technology and Head of Architecture Department at the University of Guyana. Alongside work in academia, Gouveia then began a long career with the World Bank, serving as a Housing Advisor in the early 1970s and as an Urban Specialist within the Urban Projects Department by 1975. Six years later, he held the position of World Bank Senior Loan Officer for the South Asia Country Programs Department. In 1987 he changed roles and became the Procurement Advisor for the Projects Policy Department. Beyond the World Bank, Gouveia also held important positions, acting as the Head of the Technology and Energy Unit, for the Caribbean Development Bank in the early 1980s and serving as a Director for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the 1990s.
Sources
- Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
- Architectural Association Diploma Roll, 1966-67. AA Archives.
- Architectural Association Student Records, 1960s, Registrar’s Office. AA Archives.
- Architectural Association Council Minutes, 18th July, 1966. AA Archives
- UNESCO, SERI, ‘International Directory of New and Renewable Energy Information Sources and Research Centres’. First Edition, UNESCO/SERI, 1982
- Nepomuceno, P. ‘External Service Extends Staff Experience’, The World’s Bank, Vol. 2, No. 12, December 1983, p5
- ‘Senior Appointments in the Reorganised Bank’, The Bank’s World, Vol. 6, Nos. 6/7, June/July 1987, p17.
- ‘Senior Staff Appointments’, The Bank’s World, Vol. 10, No. 5, May 1991, p23
