Earlier this month, we interviewed Lavinia Nannini, a professor of architecture here at Pantheon Institute. Lavinia comes to Pantheon this semester to co-teach both the Roman Urban Design and Cartography course (ARCH 499C), alongside Professor Cauthran Ceen, and Architectural Analysis (ARCH 499B), alongside Professor Romolo Martemucci. Lavinia demonstrates an incredible resume rooted in urban planning and architectural design. Originally from Rome, Lavinia earned her Masters of Urban Planning and Design from City College of New York. Lavinia has worked with many renowned architects, such as Massimiliano Fuksas and Michael Sorkin, and her professional career spans projects around the globe, including Italy, the U.S., Mexico, and China.
Now returning to Rome and transitioning into teaching in higher education, Lavinia reflects on the art of seeing, the duality of antiquity and modernity in Rome, and the future of architecture and how the field looks for burgeoning young architects.
“I think it’s time for the younger generations who are in school to really rethink the field…the future of architecture is hand-in-hand with the future.”
Coming from an artistic family, Lavinia was originally drawn to architecture through her love of sketching and drawing. Blending both creativity and pragmatism, Lavinia enjoys the duality of architecture as a holistic discipline. Now as a professor, Lavinia is enthusiastic about sharing her love of design with her students, saying, “As professors, we always learn from our students, but, I also feel like, specifically in this case because it’s architecture and Rome, I have a lot to offer. My passion for architecture and also the lens of architecture versus urban planning, but then also my love for Rome, which is an incredible city for student because it’s just so fascinating and so unique.”
Above: Lavinia with students on the PI Academic Field trip to Firenze, Fall 2024
Below: Lavinia at the End-of-Semester Design Reception with Romolo Martemucci, Fall 2024
Above: Lavinia with students and Professor Edoardo Cappella during the Premio Piranesi Competition Design Studio, Fall 2024
“Architecture is now so computer–oriented that for the last four years, most of [our] students have been in front of a screen. So, the tactile part of architecture, which IS ARCHITECTURE, is completely lost. The immersive experience, being in a city, and literally learning to re-observe and analyze with your own eyes … it’s really tactile, it’s something that you have to observe and learn from.”
Portico d’Ottavio
Piazza Venezia
Beyond learning to reorient oneself in a given urban space, Lavinia speaks about the vital nature of physical drawing and sketching as part of the essential learning and creating process. “[The Pantheon Institute] introduces so much of actual sketching and drawing [into the course work] that has been completely lost. …You don’t think the same way if you’re always on a computer, you literally cannot, because the second your hand moves, it’s a different kind of intelligence, a different kind of creativity.”
Lavinia’s decision to return to academia stems from her perception that the field of architecture is at a crossroads. “I think it’s really time for the younger generations who are in school to really rethink the field…the future of architecture is hand-in-hand with the future. … I urge [students] to go outside-the-box and re-establish the boundaries and the direction of the field. In a world with all the challenges, not only AI, but also climate catastrophe, we’re faced with huge things and, of course, architecture is embedded in all this.”
Being from Rome, Lavinia is partial to all that the Eternal City has to offer. For study abroad in particular, Lavinia explains that Rome offers the best of the past and the present, a living and ever-evolving example of how preservation of historical identity meets innovation for the future. In particular, Lavinia believes Rome offers students the opportunity to cultivate the lost art of seeing. “I truly believe we’ve lost the ability to see, and by see I mean a very deep observation. I think Rome is a fantastic platform for this because [Rome] is a very, very complex environment in which we literally still have antiquity and archaeological sites in the center of the city, and then, of course, we see everything throughout [history], the masterpieces of Baroque, all the way to the challenges of modern Rome. A contemporary Rome with all its flaws, all its challenges. You can learn anything from this city”.
The practice of deep observation, according to Lavinia, is best practiced through immersion. “When you’re always in front of the computer and you just have to wrap it up and make something happen, it’s not the same as spending three hours in front of a church and sketching. That’s what we try to do in the [Analysis course], to really analyze, dissect, trying to understand the urban environment and all its facets and how it comes together”.
“Rome is always going to be eternal.”
Tempio di Venere Gentrice
Lavinia believes the future of architecture will always be rooted in an appreciation of the past. This is why she champions Rome as still being an essential environment for studying architecture and urban planning. “You get two cities in one, which is really rare. Rome is always going to be eternal, [you can] learn everything about proportion, beauty, skillfulness of the ancient. [Ancient archeology] is still literally all over the city, which is unheard of, it’s rare. But you also get a contemporary city, and that’s urban planning. I think Rome is challenged by the contemporary part, maybe more so than other cities, because it always has to balance out preservation with innovation. I think you get two experiences in one: one that is really of now and crucial because we have contemporary challenges with contemporary architecture, we have the struggles like everyone, such as transportation, cleaning up a river, you name it. And then of course you have other things that no other city has. You can still study and learn from the ancient Romans, structurally, monument wise, material wise”.
Ultimately, Lavinia feels that there is no better place to study architecture, saying, “It’s an incredible platform. We should really rethink the built environment, and I think Rome is an excellent lesson”.
