Author: Karma Rekhi | Major: Landscape Architecture | Semester: Summer 2025

The infamous hole in the wall at Villa Ada – our primary design task

Over the past 10 weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to live in one of the most historically and architecturally rich cities in the world: Rome. As a landscape architecture student who is minoring in urban and regional planning, living in Rome gave me the opportunity to learn from a city shaped by its history while still responding to its modern usage. This program gave my studio and I a chance to explore Rome’s urban layout through piazza studies, site analysis, city tours, history lectures, and a final studio project focused on improving Villa Ada (a major public park in Rome) connection to its surrounding neighborhood. Rome has always been an area of interest for me. The city is built on layers of history, with each layer adding to the city composite. Living and studying in the heart of the city gave me a chance to really understand how Rome’s urban form and layers shape not only the city itself, but also the Italian culture. Our studio, Palazzo Taverna, was right in the historic center, which really added to our immersive experience in the city. We attended lectures on Roman history and architecture, did in-depth piazza studies through sketch work, took a landscape architecture theory class, and went on city walks that helped us understand the spaces we were learning about.A key takeaway from the program was the emphasis on understanding urban form by being present in the spaces we were studying. We detailed how the scale, proportions, materials, and social functions of Roman piazzas shape the way people interact with them through our sketchbooks. Through sketching each space with different angles (diagrams, plans, and sections), we started to understand what specifically makes these spaces desirable, or undesirable. Every site visit or city walk helped me understand not just how spaces work, but how to design with them in mind and respond to the needs of the people who use them. The primary project of our studio was a design proposal centered on Villa Ada, a large public park in Rome. Despite its size and prominence, the park is overall unmaintained and cut off from the nearby neighborhoods by an exterior wall. Our task was to find ways to better connect the park with its surrounding urban environment by creating accessible entry points. Using what we’d learned in our site analysis and urban form, I proposed a design that responded to Roman culture while considering ecological and social needs. The project was a true reflection of my growth as a designer, as it challenged me to engage with a culture that was new to me while still focusing on the task at hand. One of the most important lessons I took away from this experience was the value of slowing down and really observing the spaces around me. Rome is a city where every corner has a story, every building carries history, and every street is part of a bigger transformation. As a designer, learning to appreciate these smaller details will shape how I approach my work in the future. When in Fayetteville, I will be able to apply lessons learned throughout this summer in my academic and professional career. I’ll look at my hometown with fresh eyes, understanding that every place is a reflection of its past and present. And as I continue my studies at theUniversity of Arkansas, I’ll bring with me the lessons, techniques, and insights I gained in Rome to further my future designs