Rome Studies Program

Immersion into an Exemplary Architectural Culture

In 1969 the School's then-chair, Francesco Montana, founded the Rome Studies Program.

It is unparalleled among U.S. architecture programs as our third-year undergraduate students are required to study in Rome for a full academic year, and our graduate students spend a full semester of study at our Rome campus.

The curriculum includes urban and architectural studios, history and theory classes, as well as hand sketching and painting. Central to the pedagogy is understanding the sense of place by designing for that sense of place, which, in the case of Rome and much of Italy, consists of centuries of layered refinement in the making of cities. For this purpose the curriculum offers an extensive immersion within Italy’s diverse regional characters with faculty-guided field trips to Lazio, Umbria, Toscana, Emilia Romagna, the Veneto, Campania, and Sicily. Students receive instruction in the layered regional histories, in the ways in which cities and buildings are composed, in their intelligent inscription within nature, in the rich variety of architectural types and their uses, as well as time-tested ways of building durably. Designing, analyzing, drawing, and painting, are some of the vital activities used in the pedagogical formation of our students.

The focus is on Rome's millennial history — its cultural continuity, seen in its intelligent integration of archaeological remains and new edifices, its exemplary piazze, renowned streets, celebrated palazzi, splendid churches and temples, rich museums and libraries, votive monuments, and its remarkable artistic tradition. The superlative qualities of these works of architecture and art made Rome an exalted paradigm for many other cities around the world, especially in the Mediterranean.

In their immediate and intense experience as artistic citizens of Rome, our students cultivate and refine their life-long aesthetic outlook.

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Shaping Identities through Cultural Immersion

The academic year in Rome, exposes Notre Dame architecture students to a unique reality, which imparts respect for the built environment on a human scale. Thanks to the program and personal travel, students’ experiences are not limited to Rome but extend throughout Italy and Europe. The lessons learned during this time are rooted in centuries of growth anchored by tradition and maintenance of local habits and ways of living. Students do not only learn a "style," but a methodology that allows a universal approach to design, one that is based on respect for places.

Practical Learning Outcomes

A city’s success can be determined through the ‘reading’ of its urban structures. Understanding the dynamics of urban development, specifically the tools and strategies used by the people who have lived there, inspires strategies to reorganize the North American suburbs.

Students are taught to recognize these tools and strategies through the analysis of urban characteristics within different parts of Rome. This analysis returns home with third-year students and becomes a method to approach design projects all around the world, which helps to understand a way of designing that respects local tradition. The curriculum teaches that the system of streets and piazzas that Rome has to offer, its mix of functions and incomes, building variety and the elements that make urban places pleasant, are all crucial in helping the architects of tomorrow design with the utmost respect. This analysis becomes an approach design projects all around the world: the elaboration of a pattern book for a local architectural lexicon which helps to understand a way of designing that respects a given particular local tradition. To understand the system of streets and piazzas that Rome has to offer, the mix of functions and of incomes, the building variety and all the elements that make urban spaces pleasant is crucial in helping the architects of tomorrow to design with respect to place.

An understanding of the street and square systems that Rome has to offer; the existing building-type variety that provide for a mix of functions and incomes; in addition to elements that make urban spaces pleasant are all crucial to helping the architects of tomorrow design with respect for place.

When in Rome

Undergraduate architecture students live in the Notre Dame Rome Villa, in the same neighborhood where classroom and studio facilities are located. The ND Villa is a residence for third-year architecture students shared with other undergraduate Notre Dame students from across the arts and sciences. Since 2017, Notre Dame’s Villa on the Celio has brought together undergraduate students from across the arts and sciences. ND Rome's location is in the heart of the city, just steps from the Colosseum, yet it remains a Roman neighborhood unto itself. The neighborhood is dotted with ancient Roman monuments large and small as well as centuries-old churches; and is largely inhabited by Romans, rather than tourists. The Colosseum is ND’s mighty neighbor as well as San Clemente: an architectural time machine going back through the Middle Ages to the Roman Empire. Family-run shops, restaurants and bars are found throughout the neighborhood. In Notre Dame’s ten years in the Celio neighborhood, residents have come to know and welcome ND students into the daily life of the Celio community. From the Via Ostilia building, the rest of the city is a short walk away.

Undergraduate Travel

Sudents travel throughout Italy, from Sicily to Venice, to deepen their nuanced understanding of the variables and complexities of traditional architecture and urbanism.

Graduate Student Travel

By spending two weeks in Sardinia documenting and studying a building selected for the preservation studio, graduate students develop technical expertise to approach the wider policies on heritage restoration. They visit ongoing or exemplary restoration works, such as the Acropolis of Athens. Travel to Ornai, Torino, Norcia, and Syros in Greece are destinations where Master of Historic Preservation (MSHP) students learn from experts in the field.

Architecture Conservation in Rome

Through the MSHP Rome semester, students learn international approaches and theory to architecture conservation and heritage management. Students travel to historic sites throughout Europe and have hands-on experience with preservation and restoration of buildings of a wide range of ages and types. Building upon the first semester of coursework students are immersed in:

• Building archaeology and critical analysis of historic landmarks
• Architectural conservation and design
• Digital technologies in the field of heritage
• Regional traditions in architecture
• Cultural dimension of the built patrimony

Student Work in Rome

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Notre Dame Rome
Via Ostilia 15
00184 Rome, Italy