Number & Title of Course: ARPL 302 R1 Architectural Design III, Rome, 6 credits
Course Description:
This purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the fundamentals of urban space and multi-unit housing
that defines urban space. Since this is the studio taught in Rome, the locus of study is Rome.
Course Goals and Objectives:
● To grasp the concept of figure-ground as it relates to urban space. In particular to be able to see the piazza as a
figural void not only as a 2D phenomenon, but as a 3D space.
● To understand the formal ordering of urban space both morphologically and perceptually.
● To understand urban space as a social environment.
● To use Rome and other Italian cities and Vienna as an open classroom.
● To understand the historical layers of a city like Rome and how one might explain an ancient site through
minimally invasive architectural means.
● To understand the genius loci of a place and respond contextually, yet in a contemporary architectural mode.
● To learn housing typologies and unit typologies.
● To learn to organize buildings and housing units in terms of served and service spaces, structure, & circulation.
● To understand the potential of housing to be a social environment.
● To understand housing as a series of territories from public, to semi-public, to semi-private, to private.
● To respond to local climate at the level at the fundamental level.
Student Performance Criteria addressed:
A.2 Design Thinking Skills
A.3 Visual Communication Skills
A.4 Technical Documentation
A.6 Fundamental Design Skills
A.7 Use of Precedent
A.8 Ordering Systems Skills
C.1 Collaboration
Topical Outline:
Project 1 Urban Space Analysis (5 groups; pencil rendering)
Project 1b Urban Design Sketch Problems (individual)
Project 2 Housing Analysis (9 groups; computer)
Project 3 Design Project with Rome Tre Students (multi-media)
Project 4 Piazza and Housing Project (hand drawing and/or computer; final pencil drawing)
Reading Notes
25%
5%
10%
10%
45%
5%
Prerequisites:
ARPL 301 Architectural Design II; ARPL 211, 212, 311 Architectural History Sequence
Textbooks/Learning Resources:
Lynch, Kevin. Image of the City. (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1964)
Bacon, Edmund. Design of Cities. (New York: Penguin Books, 1976)
Krier, Rob. Urban Space. (New York: Rizzoli International, 1979)
Schumacher, Thomas. “Contextualism: Urban Ideals + Deformations” in Casabella (no. 359-360, 1971)
Sherwood, Roger. Modern Housing Prototypes. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1978)
Nolli, Gian Battista. La Nuova Topografia di Roma. (Roma, 1748)
Lanciani, Rodolfo. Forma Urbis Romae. (Roma: Quasar, 1990)
Zucker, Paul. Town and Square: From the Agora to the Village Green. (NY: Columbia Univ. Press, 1970)
Offered:
Spring only; annually
Faculty assigned last two academic years:
Vytenis Gureckas (F/T)