Overlook from the belvedere della fortezza in Orvieto, Italy
Author: Jared Davenport | Major: Architecture | Semester: Spring 2023
As a student in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, traveling to Rome is a requirement during our academic careers, but it is required for a reason. The ancient city, where many of civilizations greatest achievements were realized, is the perfect setting to study the developments of architecture from the first century until the present. Architectural education has a long history of including travel during study dating all of the way back to Beaux Arts in the 19th century when an organized curriculum was created. Many of the greatest architects of the modern era attribute much of their inspiration from what they saw during travel such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn, and Alvar Aalto. I now understand why it is such an important part of our academic journey. Architecture is considered by many to fall into the category of ‘the arts,’ and as such it is best learned through experience. When I walked through St. Peter’s Basilica, I understood in much greater depth the historical impact of religious architecture on the city of Rome through continuous competition between papal dynasties than I could have ever received sitting in front of a slide show presentation. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an experience must be worth a million.
Although the monuments in Rome and the other cities I visited were incredible and enlightening in their own ways, what made the greatest impact on me were the historic streets of these old cities. As students of architecture, we are encouraged to consider the urban environment as an architecture all on its own. What was so great about the streets is that none of the architecture stood out as an individual success, but it was the unity of the collective buildings that created a well-balanced, pleasant environment for the city. As I would walk through their streets, I would often recall Robert Venturi’s quote that “Main Street is almost all right,” and I was able to better understand what he meant.
The classes we took fit perfectly with the goals of a study abroad program which are to encourage exploration and to understand the city in which you are living. The two classes that best embodied these goals were our studio class and its corequisite, Architecture of the City. The latter occupied the first four weeks of the semester. The purpose of the class was to teach us about the urban fabric of the city of Rome and the historic events that occurred to produce it. This then turned into our studio class which included an urban redesign of another portion of Rome. I thought there was a lot of cohesion between the two classes and their intentions were laid out clearly by the instructors throughout the process.
Although classes were great, I wouldn’t rank them as my top experiences while being abroad. Those awards go to the people I met while I was there. My world shrunk a little with every new person I met from every corner of the Earth. My favorite of these interactions was when I took a day trip to Frascati with my wife. Frascati is a small wine town on the outskirts of Rome known for its food and white wine. While we were eating lunch, an older gentleman from Boston and a younger man from Rome sat down at the table next to us. We began chatting with them, and before we knew it we had spent the entire day with them. We went to a small local wine bar, we drank coffee, we went to an antique bookstore/wine bar (there are a lot of wine bars in Italy). We spent the rest of the day with these two people listening to an unending list of stories of their many travels around the world. We then rode the train back to Rome with them and parted ways, but we traded information, and now we have a place to stay in Boston if we ever make it up there.
If I could give any advice to people heading out to study abroad, it would be this: meet people. So many students who travel confine themselves to the group of other students with whom they traveled. I think this limits your depth of experience to something you could achieve anywhere. Architecture, language, and food are important to a place, but the people define it. I think to truly experience it you need to meet the people. It could be uncomfortable, but you might be surprised to find how kind and welcoming people are if you are open to meeting them.