La Dolce Vista

Fall 2022

Location: Rome, Italy

Professor: Antonio Pietro Latini

Group Studio

Process

This studio provided us with a crash course in urban design and planning, which was valuable for our understanding of context and the ways that buildings shape spaces, among other things. The studio started with some quicker exercises in ideas relating to urban design, including creating defined public spaces by both building up and carving out of places.

As we progressed, the studio became much more about creating a new urban area in Rome, Italy. This was done by studying the historic parts of Rome and those areas that "work" and translating it into an unsuccessful area. Early studies into Rome were crucial to this, including street plans and sections, block density, and façade studies.

The bulk of the studio was the design of the new neighborhood in Rome, taking our preliminary studies and translating them into a new area. This area abutted a less successful neighborhood in Rome, with the idea that this good neighborhood could potentially improve the poorer area. We worked in groups of three; this allowed us to divide the labor and play on our strengths. The group I worked in was excellent; we maintained excellent communication and set clear goals with each meeting. We used the metaphor of a cross-section of a garlic head, where each "clove" had its own center, yet it was part of a larger cohesive whole.