Cornell in Rome has been an integral part of architectural study at Cornell University for 20 years. Architecture students traditionally look forward to this semester abroad for first-hand experience of buildings and urban spaces previously only studied in classes and lectures. Rome, with its unparalleled complexity of historical layers, presents the student of architecture with the challenge of visualizing architecture in a city where the intensity of history pervades.
The city teaches students to understand that history can become a critical foundation for understanding that architectural design is an integral component of the urban context. Complete immersion in this distinctive and complex milieu presents students with new and different problems and decisions; through analysis and understanding of historic examples, experience and insight is gained for future design challenges.
Design studios, complemented by visits to important buildings, museums, and monuments both in Rome and throughout Italy, emphasize on site observation, measuring, drawing and projection, while history courses and theory seminars encourage students to engage in analytical thinking, direct study, and cultural interpretation.
Italian and European architects and educators complement faculty from Cornell in teaching the six-credit studio, and assist in formulating and contributing to a rich variety of seminars, lectures, and field trip programs.
Architecture Requirements
Fourth year architecture students in good academic standing who have completed the requirements of the first three years of the five-year B.Arch. curriculum are eligible for participation in Cornell in Rome.
The program also is open to third year and graduate students by petition; third-year students are admitted only by petition and a review of their design record if space permits. Only one third-year design course taken in Rome applies toward third-year design sequence (3101, 3102). Any subsequent design course taken off-campus by a third year student will be applied to fourth year design sequence credit.
Signatures of approval by faculty advisers and the department chair are required before admission may be considered.
Only students from outside Cornell enrolled in five-year B.Arch. programs may apply to the design studio. A portfolio is required.
modostudio Wins Architecture Competition in Modena
Giorgio Martocchia, architecture studio faculty member in Fall 2008 with Andrea Simitch, and his associates at modostudio won a competition in the city of Modena (January 2009) for the urban and architectural redevelopment of the area called 'Ex Fonderie Riunite'. The new site, designed by modostudio, will be home to the Design, Arte, Scienza, e Tecnologia (D.A.S.T.). Visit
modostudio.eu/ex-fonderie-modena to see the design in more detail. Cornell in Rome congratulates modostudio on their accomplishment!
Yana Rachovska
