Rome

Study Abroad In Rome - Architecture

 

Description
The Pratt Institute School of Architecture offers an honors undergraduate program for students of the fourth year to study architecture and Italian culture in Rome.

The encounter with the city, a place foreign and yet familiar, profound and contradictory, is intended to site a reconsideration of design priorities. The investigation of the remains of antiquity and Rome's urban artifacts can offer a unique lesson; the interaction of physical cause and cultural effect on the built environment and its cumulative presence through time.

The program undertakes an intensive study of the city's architectural and cultural history, providing the student with experiential insight into the precedents that have had an enormous impact on the development of architecture in the western world. Special field trips to the regions of the Veneto, Tuscany, Umbria, Campagna and Puglia expand on the depth and range of historical sites and subjects studied during the semester.

The Rome Program provides an opportunity for 3rd and 4th year students in a professional degree (BArch) or liberal arts program (with an Architecture major) to live and study in this unique context.The lesson of Rome is one that goes beyond its strong architectural heritage It presents a different culture, language and landscape, where history assumes a dominant role in the continuum of time. This is an environment which generates particular responses, specifically toward people and toward an appreciation of urban place.

In the thirty years that the program has been offered, it has always been intended that the contrast between New York and Rome would stimulate discourse and inspire re-evaluation of existing preconceptions.

Course Description
The eighteen credit curricular structure consists of seven professional credits in Architectural Design and Urban Studies. Emphasis is placed on drawing as the critical tool - for analytical consideration of an urban area and as a condition of making the anticipated architectural intervention within the existing, historical context.

The program also includes a three credit course in freehand drawing which places its emphasis on "seeing" the urban form of Rome in a more intense way; a three credit course in Italian which treats not only language but also issues of history, culture, and film; a course in the history of art and architecture dealing with the Renaissance and Baroque period; and a two credit course in the history of modern Italian architecture "from Piranesi to the Present".

• ARCH 400i - Advanced Design 5 credits
• ARCH 291v - Urban Studies 2 credits
• ARCH 391v - Sketching - 3 credits
• ARCH 292v - History of Italian Modern Architecture - 2 credits
• CH 454i - Rome as Spectacle - 3 credits
• ITAL 102i - Italian Language & Culture - 3 credits

Faculty
Frederick Biehle is an Architect practicing in New York City. He holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 1986-8 he was the recipient of the Prix de Rome Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome.  In 1993 and 1994 he co-coordinated a design studio in conjunction with the archaeological excavation of the Palace of Herod the Great in Caesarea, Israel. He has taught studio design at Pratt Institute since 1994 and is now the New York Coordinator of the Program.

Richard Piccolo has a Bachelor of Industrial Design Degree from Pratt and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Brooklyn College.  He is a painter living in Rome.  He has exhibited at Scholkopf Gallery in New York, and his mural cycle Earth, Air, Fire, and Water is installed at Park Plaza in Sacramento California.  Professor Piccolo has been Program Director of the Pratt in Rome Program since its inception in 1979.

Emanuela Riccardi has a professional diploma from the University of Rome.  She has taught Italian language at Intercoop Berlitz School, American College of Rome, Temple University and Washington University Rome Programs, and has taught at Pratt in Rome since 1980.

Jeffrey Blanchard has a Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University and a Master's Degree from Yale University.  He was a Fulbright Scholar in Florence, Italy and is also the recipient of a Kress Foundation Fellowship, a Philip Goodwin Fellowship, and a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.  Professor Blanchard has taught in the Pratt Rome Program since 1981, and has also taught at Yale University and the University of Notre Dame Schools of Architecture, The Southern California Institute for Architecture, and the Cornell University School of Architecture Rome program where he serves as Program Director.

Lorenzo Pignatti has a degree in Architecture from the University of Rome and a Masters of Architecture Degree from the University of Toronto.  He is an architect practicing in Rome, and is an Assistant Professor of Architecture teaching in the Waterloo Studio in Rome and in Waterloo, Ontario.  He has been a Visiting Professor to the Pratt Rome program since 1984.

Jan Gadeyne is an archaeologist specializing in Ancient Roman and Early Christian art and architecture conducting extensive research as part of his dissertation at the Belgian Historical Institute of Rome.  He has also studied at the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristina in Rome, The Westfalische Wilhelms Universitat Munster in Germany and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Visiting Design Faculty from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn

Erika Hinrichs is a practicing architect and a partner in her own firm. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and The Cooper Union. Before teaching she worked for seven years as a project architect with Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Architects. She has taught design studios at Pratt since 1999 and is a frequent critic for the Rome Program.

Anthony Caradonna is a graduate of Pratt Institute and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  He is a former partner of AC2, recipient of the 2004 ID Magazine furniture award. He has taught at Parsons School of Design, Columbia University, Cornell University and since 1993 Pratt Institute, where he currently serves as a full time professor specializing in interdisciplinary studies. Before that he was the school's undergraduate chairman.

Facilities

 

Studio
The Pratt Studios are located at Piazza S. Apollonia, #3,  Roma, Italia 00153 (011 39 6 581 3053) in a renovated Renaissance palace in the historic Trastevere district of Rome.  The studios adjoin the magnificent Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, with its 12th century church and bell tower, an

important example of Romanesque architecture.  Facilities include studios with assigned individual workspaces, lecture room and library.  The studio is conveniently located within short walking distance to many important buildings and sites, as well as shops, markets & eateries.  The facilities are spacious but not luxurious, providing an environment suited to academic and creative research, dialogue and development.

Library
The Pratt studio has a small library of required course texts and relevant History and Architectural books, as well as important culturally related texts and readings.  The collection is housed under separate key and monitored the students during its limited hours for students' convenience and book security.  The collection is small and so each volume holds a precious place on the shelves.  A program that promotes gifting to the library, most typically by graduates of the program, has been instituted.

Housing
The Program Director assists in organizing and providing housing arrangements prior to arrival in Rome. This has become an economical, convenient, and successful way of providing more than satisfactory housing accommodations. There are five available apartments, all located within a 10 minute walk of the Pratt Studios, all within the historic center of the city. Each apartment will house 5 or 6 students, two to a bedroom. Each apartment is fully furnished and unique.

Housing is provided for the full duration of the spring semester program in Rome, from the scheduled arrival date to one week after the close of the semester. Housing costs include rent, security deposit, electricity, heat, hot water, bi-weekly cleaning costs and basic local telephone costs.

Meals
Italian cuisine is famous for its richness, diversity and taste.  As tempting as it may be to sample every and all forms of Italian cuisine, dining out is not always the most economical way to survive the semester.  Living with a group of students in an apartment equipped with a kitchen allows the opportunity to sample the fresh produce, breads, pastas and desserts in a more economical way. The program faculty and director will provide recommendations for the fairest and highest quality establishments for dining out in Rome.

Tuition and fees
Students in the Rome Program remain full-time matriculated Pratt Institute students. Thus basic tuition costs are identical to other fourth year students. Listed below are the additional costs for the program. Financial aid allowances are generally applicable for Rome as they would be for study in Brooklyn. Accepted students are requested to meet with the Financial Aid office during the fall semester.

Costs

• Tuition: (18 UG credits)  same as Brooklyn campus          
• Housing Fees:  $3,600/semester (four months)
  (not including 150 Euros deposit to be returned at completion of semester)
• Study Abroad Fee:  $400.00
• Field Trip Fee (non-refundable):   $3000. (paid directly to The Rome Program Director)
• R/T Airfare:  $ 600. (estimated)
• $7,735 - additional costs after tuition
  
  Individual Student's Responsibilities
• Books: $200.
• Insurance/Visa/Permesso/Deposits:  $225
• Supplies:  $400
• Meals:  $ 25/day or less if shared expenses
• International travel: $600 -1000 (optional)

Program Dates
Spring term one year before Rome semester
March 1   -    Initial presentation and student interviews
Week after spring break   -   Posting of list of accepted students
Pre-register Italian-arch 402

May 1 - 2nd posting of accepted students
33% Field Trip Fee Due to hold place

Fall term before Rome semester
September15   -   Posting of final revised List of Accepted Students
100% Field Trip Fee Due

October 15   -   Early Registration and Declaration of Housing
November 1   -   Visa materials Submitted
December 1   -   Full Spring Tuition and Fee Payments Due

Rome Semester
Monday, January 2nd week   -   Depart for Rome (JFK-NY)
Tuesday, January 2nd week   -   Arrive Rome (Fiumicino- Leondardo da Vinci)
Friday, January 2nd week   -   Initiation and Inaugural Dinner
Monday, January 3rd week   -   Weekday classes begin
March 1st week   -   Southern field trip
March 2nd week   -   Spring Break
March 3rd week   -   Roma Tre workshop
April 2nd week   -   Northern field trip
Tuesday, Wed May 2nd week   -   Studio- Final Reviews
Friday, May 2nd week   -   Exhibition Opening and Last Supper
Sunday May end of 2nd week   -   Early Departure from Rome
Saturday May end of third week   -   Final Departure Date for Apartments

Contact/Registration

1. Enrollment will be limited to 36 qualified students based on seniority. If necessary, there will be a waiting list.

2. To qualify, a students academic record should satisfy the following criteria:

• Completed 72 credits towards his/her B Arch. degree
• Completed and passed ARCH 302 Structures (Steel), ARCH 303 Structures(Concrete), and ARCH 302 Design.
• Minimum 3.0 GPA, No Incomplete grades, No Failing grades
• Minimum 3.0 design studio GPA

3. To participate, a student must have passed at least one semester of Italian language study (Italian 101).  Students are expected to have proficiency. The second semester of Italian language study (Italian 102) will take place in Rome. Both courses must be successfully completed for credit to be awarded to Pratt students for either course.

4. In order to be better prepared for the artistic, intellectual & socio-political context of Italy and the Rome Program course requirements, Pratt students are required to take the Pre-requisite course ARCH 420 Legacy of Roman Form taught by Prof Frederick Biehle.

One additional elective course on Italian culture, art or architecture history in the fall semester is encouraged. Visiting students are advised to take one or two similar courses in the preceding fall semester which provide introduction into Italian culture, language, architecture and/or art.

5. Students interested in participating in the Rome Program should submit a completed Application Form with Statement of Interest and Faculty References. Portfolio interviews of all applicants will take place by appointment.  The list of eligible students will be posted.

6. Students visiting from other (not-Pratt) Institutions or programs should consult the program coordinator, Frederick Biehle @ 212/227-5832, email- fbiehle@pratt.edu  for an application and registration procedures.