FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. — A recent workshop took nine University of Arkansas students from the lush gardens surrounding four Renaissance palaces in the Roman countryside to an abandoned paper mill in Subiaco, Italy. Coupling spectacular formal gardens with a desolate industrial site allowed students and professors to study and experiment with the fundamental principles of landscape design: the idea of spatial axis, the use of a reference grid, and the manipulation of natural elements to create comfortable outdoor “rooms.”

Students studied four historic palaces in the castle district east of Rome. They spent the night in the Villa Tuscolana, pictured here.

Students applied landscape principles and studied at historic villas to plan new uses for this abandoned paper mill in Subiaco, Italy.

Ryan Evitts imagined a contemporary spin on the Italian grotto.

“The idea was this: to study traditional landscape design for the villas and from there, move on to explore contemporary landscapes,” said Davide Vitali, director of the University of Arkansas Rome Center for Architecture and the Humanities. “What design principles are applicable — and not applicable?”

Vitali and Fran Beatty, head of the university’s landscape architecture department, organized the 11-day workshop, which was sponsored by Colline Romane, a promotional organization for the Castelli Romani district south of Rome. The students were given full access to four historic villas, some of which are not open to the public.

“It was really interesting to study how they worked with landscape up in the mountains. They had to think about the steep grade,” said Chrissy James, a third-year student from Bentonville.

“It was unbelievable,” said Ike Carroccio, a third-year student from Fayetteville. “You can be at one villa and see another — and see Rome, as well. “

After two days of touring and sketching in the castle district, the group turned its attention to the project site in Subiaco, which offered a very different history than the Roman villas.

Established in the 17^th century to produce paper, stamps and copper coins for the papacy, the site was heavily bombed during World War II. It was later rebuilt, but has been abandoned in recent years. Situated next to the Aniene River about 45 miles east of Rome, the site offers views to the hillside town of Subiaco and parkland with ruins of Nero’s villa that date back to the first century A.D.

“It’s a very rich site, and challenged our students. How do you recycle industrial sites into the public realm, without erasing the past?” asked Beatty.

Working in teams, the students developed a range of ideas that would repurpose the approximately 10-acre site as a recreational area with links to the city, river and park. Students Chrissy James, Julie Russell and Ike Carroccio each proposed sequences of parks, promenades and plazas oriented along the river, which Beatty felt was especially appropriate: “The river was the life of the town and the life of the mill site,” she said. Ryan Evitts developed a series of spaces that would lead visitors to a secluded garden with a modern grotto.

“One challenge was trying to capture, understand, and process the scale of the site, and how to revise the space in order to give it a human scale,” Evitts said.

The most successful projects were those that considered and layered different systems: archaeology, ecology, access to the modern city, commerce and production, human behavior and social interaction.

 “The layered landscape is a contemporary idea. The students were very good at creating that,” Vitali said.

The workshop concluded with a presentation of the students’ plans to area officials, including Giulio Rossi, mayor of Cervara di Roma, the hillside town that hosted the students during the latter part of the workshop, and Enrico Memeo, president of Monti Simbruini park.

“It was an incredible educational opportunity for our students. They worked hard and came up with a wide range of design ideas for the site,” Beatty said.