Charrette with Roma Tre University: Portico d'Ottavia

This week (March 3rd-6th), we completed a short project that dealt with re-designing the space out in front and off to the east side of Portico d'Ottavia. We were privileged to be working alongside in groups with the graduate architecture students from Roma Tre University. It was a wonderful new experience to see how the different cultures came together to explore the architecture of the site and how to better design the space. Even with a language barrier of sorts, the collaboration of ideas still came together in a short period of time, producing several interesting projects.

-Joe Taylor, Torsten Meuschke

Northern Italy: Part Two

On our third stop in Northern Italy, Vicenza, we had the privilege of visiting several projects designed by famous Italian architect, Palladio.  We first visited his Teatro Olympico, a theater which is still in use today.  We sketched his Basilica and then traveled outside the city to visit his famous Villa Rotunda.

In Venice, we were privileged enough - or not so privileged - to be present during "Carnivale", a multi-day celebration of the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, much like our Mardi Gras.  It was interesting to see the locals' extravagant, and sometimes frightening, costumes and masks, but the city was extremely crowded.  We visited the very large Piazza San Marco along with the neighboring Basilica di San Marco.  We sketched two Carlo Scarpa museums, visited a Palladian church, and saw a bridge designed by Calatrava.  Only one student fell in a canal!

On our one day trip to Bologna on our way back to Rome, we barely survived the climb up the highest tower to view the city from above - but the view was beautiful.  We visited a small toy store designed by Carlo Scarpa and thoroughly annoyed the Italian store owner.  We were then encouraged to spend our last hours of the trip exploring the city and sketching the very unique street sections with colonnades on both sides.

Upon arriving home on the evening of February 28th, we were all extremely exhausted but had a wonderful time in all the cities we experienced.

Trip North Part 1 by Jessica Burns and Emily Girardi