About
Overview
The Villa I Tatti Internship is offered by the Department of Landscape Architecture in partnership with The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti . One graduate internship is available for eight weeks during June and July for a returning MLA student to reside at I Tatti, near Florence, Italy. The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, which is housed in historic buildings surrounded by a working farm and a 1909 garden by the architect Cecil Pinsent, is dedicated to the fruitful exchange of ideas and an atmosphere conducive to research and writing.
The research for this internship is divided into two parts. The first is working with the IT and horticultural staff at I Tatti to further document conditions in the garden that demonstrate vulnerabilities due to the climate crisis, primarily concerning extended drought and varied insect and fungal threats to plant vigor.
The second task is a research topic devised by the intern; applicants will propose a topic for study that is related to the gardens and farm but with projected outcomes related to their own academic trajectory. A GSD faculty advisor is required for this effort.
Eligibility
Returning MLA students in the Department of Landscape Architecture are invited to apply. Interns receive $5,000 to offset the cost of living and airfare. They are required to reside at I Tatti for a two month period from approximately June 1 through July 31 and are responsible for arranging their own travel. Housing is offered on the I Tatti estate. Interns are required to spend at least four full days a week at the Villa and to attend all academic events. Interns may not take on any other obligations, even part-time ones, during any part of their internship.
Application Instructions
For for deadline, selection criteria, project application, and deliverables information, please visit GSD Now.
Questions may be submitted to [email protected].
Selection Committee
Gary R. Hilderbrand
Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Peter Louis Hornbeck Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture
Anita Berrizbeitia
Professor of Landscape Architecture
Past Projects
Past recipient projects are listed below.
2025
Gemrisha Anantham (MLA I ’26): “The I Tatti Gardens as a Digital Twin: Archiving Histories and Simulating Potential Climate Futures”
2024
Caroline Brodeur (MLA I AP/ MUP ’27): “Preservation in a Changing Climate: Climate Resilience in the I Tatti Gardens”