Thanks to a growing collaboration between ISI Florence and TU Delft (RMIT), during the first week of February, the Architecture Studio at Palazzo Bargagli hosted the collaborative design workshop Sant’Orsola Unveiled 2.0.

The week-long workshop was co-organized by the Honors Program of the TU Delft Architecture Faculty, chaired by Dr. Marie-Therese van Thoor, and Ir. Job Roosand of Marywood University School of Architecture. This project was coordinated by Arch. Franco Pisani  (ISI Florence) with the support of the Florence-based Istituto Universitario Olandese directed by Prof. Michael Kwakkelstein.

Students were organized in mixed groups and asked to develop ideas for the urban retraining of the Sant’Orsola block, during a four-day design charette in which they developed  on-site assignments and design proposals.

Lizz Andrzejewski from Marywood University comments as follows: “Working with the Dutch students from Delft was an educationally rewarding experience. The best part about it was the opportunity to exchange culture and ideas. I loved being able to collaborate on an adaptive reuse project concerning  Sant’Orsola in Florence. In my group I experienced a rapid exchange of architectural concepts which we blended to create a sharing of styles and methods. I feel that I have gained an invaluable insight into the similarities and differences of architecture from the Dutch perspective and made what I hope to be lifelong friends in design. Ultimately, I learned that design is universal and love of architecture is shared by students like me all over the world.”