So I figured by this point you’re probably wondering if I actually go to school. Contrary to popular belief, I do, in fact, attend classes between weekend trips, even if I don’t talk about it much. But reviews are done, my other finals are wrapping up and I now have another semester checked off, so I guess I’ll give you a glimpse into my life as a student in the Gabrielli 1 Studio at Palazzo Taverna.
Studio
This semester’s studio was a lot different than most. Because Rome is such a dense urban fabric with thousands of years of history to consider, our projects were mostly focused on urban planning strategies, rather than a single building, like most of our semesters are.
We began the semester with a group assignment, where members from all 4 schools merged to study different neighborhoods throughout Rome. My group was assigned Testaccio, which is a neighborhood in the southern region of the city known for its authentic Italian food (consistently called the best in the city) and its industrial history. After exploring Testaccio, it didn’t take us long to figure out that we wanted to come back. It was a quiet neighborhood full of families during the day, but turned into a fun, lively nightlife zone after dark. Most of the bars and restaurants in Testaccio are wedged into Monte Testaccio, which is a mound made of ancient pottery pieces that were left over from shipping goods, back when Testaccio was the ancient port. This mound of pottery is visible from inside every restaurant, so you have direct, tangible access to ancient Rome. Across from the mound, the 19th century slaughterhouse is currently used as University campus. There is little access for the public, but we snuck in anyway and found some pretty cool art with a rustic backdrop.
Our assignment was to analyze the area in terms of formal layout, transportation, program and density (which are all just fancy architectural terms for “what’s it like there?”). By the end of the project, we had to propose a change to Testaccio that would improve it. Basically my group decided that the rich history of the area was under utilized and under appreciated, because (outside of the bars on the pottery mound), there isn’t much access to the historical ruins underneath the neighborhood, like there is everywhere else in Rome. Excavating the ruins of the port and merging them with the industrial meat-packing history of the 18th and 19th centuries would provide both citizens and tourists with a deeper understanding of this seemingly modern neighborhood.
For our next project, we divided into different groups to do a similar analysis on the Foro Italico, which is the campus designed for the 1960 Rome Olympics. At the time, the design was exemplary, with Mussolini and the Fascists footing the bill for it all. Today, this area is extremely under utilized, serving as one of the biggest urban voids in the city. The stadium still holds soccer games for AS Roma and there is a small university campus near the river, but other than the occasional tennis player or jogger, the density and the energy on site is pretty close to dead.
We next developed a series of master plans for the site, which is basically a huge organizational strategy. Coming up with a master plan is already a really hard thing to do when starting from scratch on an open lot, so throw in a few historically important buildings, and it’s even worse. Italy has strict preservation laws, so you can’t really tear anything down, and you have to fill in the gaps of the spaces that aren’t being used. After SEVERAL iterations, we merged with another group to develop a final master plan that we had to present to the class. The problem with the site as it exists, is that no one really has a reason to come there. Adding infrastructure such as bridges across the river and funiculars across the adjacent hill, Monte Mario, allow more people to access the site, where there currently isn’t any public transit aside from the rather unreliable bus system. This benefits the massive administration office building on site, which is home to hundreds of employees. Also, implementing housing will give more people easier access to the athletic amenities offered on the site (tennis courts, swimming pools, etc). This housing could be used by the media and volunteers during the Olympics, and then offered to the residents of Rome after the games conclude. Media and volunteer housing is a huge problem for Olympic cities, especially with the number of participating countries growing every year.
After spring break, we were given the opportunity to individually develop different areas of the site we were most interested in (and we were all thrilled to not have to work in groups anymore). I decided to design a funicular line, which included two stations at the top and bottom of Monte Mario. The stations align with the axis established by one of the pedestrian bridges that connects the Foro Italico with the neighborhood across the river, Flaminio, providing easy access to existing pubic transit lines. The design of the stations mimics the sharp curvature of the hill, and the forms lift from the earth so that visitors may experience the hill in a different way. Atop Monte Mario, the station stretches as a vertical end to the axis that has an observation deck for viewing Rome, which will be a popular attraction among both tourists and Olympic visitors.
Each
project in this third stage was unique. For the first time since being
in architecture school, everyone got to design something they were
interested in, rather than being told what to design.Architecture of the City
So I claimed to hate this class at the beginning of the semester, but I’ll eat my words because it made me so much better at drawing. Each week, we met at a different location in the city that we would have to draw. Most times, our professors would tell us what to draw, but sometimes we had a little bit of freedom. As promised, I have included some of the sketches that I don’t hate, so here you go:
Historic Preservation
This was probably my favorite class this semester. Our professor is a Historic Preservation professor at Sapienza University in Rome, and she’s probably one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. Even though we went to a lot of places that Architecture of the City took us to, we looked at things through a different lens.
My favorite day was the day we toured a construction site for Rome’s new Apple Store. Apple is buying out a historic palace in the heart of the city for their newest, biggest store in Europe. As many of you know, Apple likes white and glass… but in Italy you can’t tear down pink plaster for white and glass. Architect Norman Foster (a favorite of mine), is designing the new store, so the general contractors are currently making structural modifications to support the new program. The design is still confidential, but I can’t wait to see how Foster and his team merge the old and the new. This kind of work is happening in the industrial districts of many American cities. It’s “trendy” for old warehouses to become rustic apartments and nightclubs. And while this gentrification has more devastating effects to the American economy than it does to the Italian economy, it’s a trend that most architects can get behind (mostly because it gives us work).
The question of what to tear down and what to preserve is a difficult one for most cultures, but not for Italy. The Italian government has a strict set of regulations that preserves even the simplest pile of ancient rubble, for culture’s sake. If there are ruins underground, even if you can’t see them, you CAN NOT build a foundation for a new building that would affect the ancient walls. In America, we get cranky that a beautiful 60 year old Warren Seagraves church is taking up space we could be using for a sorority house, so we kick out it’s parish and tear it down (yes, Greek Life, I’m still bitter). One day, our posterity will be wondering about its cultural heritage, and we’ll have nothing to show them because we destroyed the past for the sake of the present. I’d like to think that the things I learned in this class are useful, but bringing this school of thought back to America is a process that designers have been trying to do for years. I guess I’ll just have to stay in Rome forever.
Travel Writing
Well… you’ve had pretty direct access to my work for this class all along, considering I turn in my blog for our weekly “travel journal” assignments. Much like other classes, we would spend class time visiting sites around the city, but the best part was getting to write about them instead of draw them. One other thing that separated this class from the rest was the group of students in it. Here at the UARK Rome Center, we have both architecture and fashion students, and travel writing was one of the few places I had interaction with both. Seeing Rome through their eyes was so very different. They always told us the best places to go shopping, and we would tell them about our favorite, not-so-famous buildings. This class was pretty relaxed most of the time, so it was a good balance to the busier, architecture side of life.
So there you have it, I actually did “study” abroad. We still have finals next week, but with our final project turned in, our workload is lighter and we have some time to enjoy our last full week in Rome. I’ve been using the word “last” a lot recently. It’s our last time at the Forum. It’s my last time to go into the Vatican. It’s my last week in Rome. I have a strange nostalgic need to say goodbye to everything I love about Rome (that includes you, 2.50 sandwich lady). I know I say this in every blog but I seriously can’t believe I have to leave.
On a happier note, today is officially Rome’s 2,769th birthday. At exactly 1:00, the light from the Oculus of the Pantheon aligns perfectly with the front door, which aligns perfectly with the tomb of Augusts. This is the only minute in the entire year when this happens, so the Pantheon is packed full of Rome lovers cheering and clapping. To celebrate, we got medium gelato cones instead of small. Happy Birthday Roma!
Number of Columns Hugged: 3
Days Since Mexican Food: 123 (but only 23 to go!)
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Read more from Haley at https://haleywalton.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the U of A Rome Center semester program for Architecture, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecentersemester/
