Italy: Tiber Floods

About this Travel Course

The monumental center of Rome has tolerated and managed seasonal flooding from the Tiber River watershed for millennia. Surprisingly, it is only recently in the late 19th century where canalizing the Tiber was deemed an expedient solution for protecting the newly appointed capital of a unified Italy. The shielding embankments inadvertently dismantled the riverfront from its historic core and rendered ancient water management systems, scenographic quays and river navigability virtually inert. Tiber Floods investigated and reconsidered existing preventative measures based on inundations of the past several years with data from the historical record, and confronted the challenges and possibilities it posed for urban development and historic preservation within the context of the ancient city. The studio compared and contrasted the riverine flooding of the Tiber and Adige Rivers to the endemic and emblematic coastal flooding of the aqua alta in Venice. The course encompassed a thorough survey of Rome and its territory and students travelled to visit the seminal works of Carlo Scarpa in Venice and Verona. Three weeks of travel and research abroad culminated in a site-specific architectural design project that was completed in Providence.