Thanks to one of the most famous Cornell courses that every architecture student goes through – the drawing course taught by Andrea Simitch – students gets to know Villa Giulia by heart by the time they arrive in Rome. During one of our classes with prof. Jeffrey Blanchard, we had the chance to focus on one of the many typologies of architecture in Rome: the villa.
It is with much pleasure and excitement that we have visited other villas such as Chiji’s villa, better known as Villa Farnesina, followed by other villas, but most importantly, the well known Villa Giulia, famous among other things for its breathtaking nymphaeum and garden spaces, alongside with its exciting collection of items explaining the life of the Etruscan civilization. It was thus even more exciting to be so well welcomed and having had the chance to tour the spaces, when by now all of us knew the spatial layout, and had to do nothing but walk through our past drawings taking on physical form and layers of history in front of our eyes. A memorable and enjoyable visit was of course made yet more significant when discovering the backstage history of its construction, its commissioner and so on through the extensive knowledge of the project of prof. Jeffrey Blanchard.
(all photos credit to Oonagh Davis)
by Matej Dlabal