Form and Function

The School of Architecture's Rome Studies Program is the only foreign studies program among American university architecture schools required for all students. They take courses on architectural theory, architectural history, drawing and watercolor, along with a design studio not necessarily topics that are outside the norm for third-year “arkies” as they’re called, but the curriculum gains new meaning as you’re walking around the buildings and streets that have 20 centuries of design behind them.

“We refer to Rome as the Eternal City,” said Rev. Richard Bullene, C.S.C., the Rome Studies Program academic director. “Maybe you could say it also has eternal impact, in that lessons learned here that will improve American cities. Not that we’re going to try to transplant Rome to the U.S. or to Guatemala or wherever else our graduates are working. But the pattern of thinking, the way of understanding buildings and their urban spaces is very valuable to not only our students for their personal enrichment, but to their profession as a means of cultural enrichment for the rest of the people they will serve as architects.”