Episodic Urbanism: Pedagogical Studies and the Lesson of Rome

In spite of the previous century’s abuse, Rome remainsperhaps the most remarkable “library” of spatialexperience in the world. The encounter with this city,foreign yet familiar, profound and contradictory, willinevitably question any students’ design priorities. Thestudio work of Pratt Institute’s School of Architecturein Rome has made a consistent effort to learn from thephysical and perceptual discoveries that the city offersand in particular to engage and understand its figurativeinterconnectedness. The investigation begins notwith Rome’s principle monuments and familiar publicspaces, but with an examination of several specificurban artifacts that coherently exhibit episodic linkages.Their spatial continuities will be emphasized asa critical value, in that it can empower the individualby virtue of recurrent opportunities for choice in thesimple determination of one’s way. These considerationsare then introduced as implicit requirements ina hybrid design program to be located at the center ofthe historical city. In its entirety the project is intendedto act as a mirror to the cumulative quality of the city’slarger context to which they will become interconnected.Rome is the labyrinth into which each studentwill step. All that which has been familiar will soonbe lost. To find a way out one must proceed with constantattentive curiosity. The city requires a differentunderstanding as to place and orientation, reliant oncoming to know the unique integrated relationshipbetween an incremental part and a larger, not quitecomprehensible whole. It is a knowledge that will beconstructed cumulatively, but with it, each student canbegin to build a bridge back to what they already know.

Volume Editors
Luis Francisco Rico-Gutierrez & Martha Thorne

ISBN
978-1-944214-08-1