Project 4- Multi-Unit Housing Partner: Alix Herrera Our site for our final project was down the street from our home in Trastevere. Trastevere is a dynamic part of Rome; always full of life (day and night), music, and people. Our site was no different: full of traffic (people and vehicular) as well as a popular area with us students. Within it is a restaurant, Carlo Menta, that would serve big group Sunday dinners as well as 1 euro pizza. As a group, we toured our site and the surrounding neighborhood. What was special about this initial look was that it wasn’t only the teachers explaining the site, but actually we were also providing information about our experience living here; we have a real day-to-day connection with the area. Our task was to design, in groups of two, multi-unit housing and a corresponding piazza that would organize the chaos as well as relate to the surrounding context. After studying here for a few months, we understood some of the traditional housing typologies of Rome (while some may have referenced some from our North Italy trip ) as we threaded them together to realize our projects.
The Butterfly is a housing project that centers on the theme of wellness living. To capture this theme, we lifted the housing units from the ground and designed commercial spaces that promotes healthy living such as a juice bar and yoga studio. Each apartment is oriented to capitalize on light from the piazza and organized by a garden terrace that brings in light into the dwellings. Although this is a contemporary building, we used rough travertine, a traditional building material of Rome that also exists in our site. From the travertine, we extended our contemporary program in white plaster which gives the gardens more light and reiterates the theme of the butterfly.
Roma Tre Charette- Teatro Marcello Partners: Corey Till, Chris Vail, Noemi Obinu Our site was an archaeological site in the heart of the Jewish Ghetto in Rome. For four days we were matched with students from Roma Tre to redesign the site. The goal was to reconnect it to the urban fabric and solve major circulation problems surrounding the site. Our group focused on the circulation of the site; how you approached, viewed and experienced the archaeology. We reintroduced the site with urban functions such as a market, cafe, book store exhibition space, and small amphitheater. Respectful of the archaeology, we reconstructed the portico to give an authentic approach to the site, we allowed access to the current theater, and we have designated areas where the history of the site will be displayed. We also solved circulation problems by limiting access to primarily pedestrians, connected surrounding balconies and closing strategic access points to give an element of surprise to our project. Our solution is non-invasive and gives a new life to the existing archaeology and surrounding neighborhood.
Solar Atrium- Urban Infill Partner: Paul DeFelice This is our first housing project, part of our Urban Planning semester. Our goal was to design a rooftop apartment (6mX20m) for an invented client. My partner Paul DeFelice and I chose our client, Sena Boya: a turkish painter inspired by the geometric patterns created by light in the urban fabric. Heavily inspired by our time in Venice and Carlo Scarpa in particular, we emulated his color palette, use of vernacular materials and visual connections created in our space