Charrette with Roma Tre 3/16- 3/23




After a long relaxing spring break apart, we arrived back in Rome for a new assignment. On Monday, March 16th we met at the campus of Roma Tre University. Broken up into groups of three or four, each group made a new friend! One Roma Tre student per group started our design collaboration.

The assignment was to create an educational path through the ruins surrounding Teatro Marcello in the historic district of Rome. Many of us have walked through this site before without knowing the significance of the ruins, which is why the goal of our designs was to change this.


The site was located in between the historic Jewish ghetto of Rome and the busy road coming from Capitoline Hill, usually full of tourists. We visited the site after a few lectures on the history of the ruins and the neighborhood. It was rainy and cold, but we certainly learned a lot while simultaneously getting to know our Roma Tre colleagues. After the site visit, we got to work in our studio space in Campo de’ Fiori. 

On Tuesday the 17th, we continued to work all day in Campo on our designs. A lot of creativity was all crammed in one room, and the designs moved at a rapid pace since the review was that upcoming Monday! Similarly, on Wednesday we developed our designs at the Roma Tre Campus.

The most exciting day was Thursday, since we got to work at Roma Tre’s campus near the Piramide metro stop. It was originally a slaughterhouse, converted into an architecture school! Coming from a small school like CUA’s architecture school, it was fascinating to see so many architecture students in one place. Our close-knit group was a little overwhelmed seeing the size of some of the lectures!

After working all weekend, we revealed the finished products at Roma Tre on Monday the 23rd (right before leaving for Berlin!). The review was a big success in addition to being more interesting than our usual reviews since we fluctuated between speaking English and Italian during the review. Not only did we get to improve our design skills that week, but our Italian skills as well! Each design was unique and highlighted all different historical assets of the site. Designing for the history of Rome with Roman students is an abroad experience that will influence us as architecture students for a long time. Special thanks to the faculty for making this all possible!

-Allison Friedel & Maggie Hovorka