Milanka (Savkovic) Lima Gomes

BIOGRAPHY

Milanka Lima Gomes practiced in the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau as an architect and urban planner. She was born in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and attended the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Belgrade between 1966 and 1972, qualifying as an engineer-architect. After working for two years in Belgrade, she moved to Guinea-Bissau on the country’s Independence in 1974, along with about a dozen foreign technicians who augmented the four architects in the country. Soon after her arrival, Gomes assumed important roles in the Ministry of Public Works, Construction and Urbanism, occupying the position of General Director of Urban Planning until 1984. She coordinated the first post-independence Urbanization Plan of Bissau (1975-1978). The period was marked by a series of monuments and public buildings to symbolize the new nation, such as the monument to Amílcar Cabral (Bafatá, 1973-1976), which she designed, and the new presidential complex for the Bissau Summit (1979) for which she coordinated the realization. In 1991 she joined the Gaubi-Bissau Office of Architecture and Urbanism, based in Bissau.

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(Ana Vaz Milheiro, 2021)