Perugia exists between Florence and Rome in the north and south axis, and it also exists in the east west axis between Siena and Assisi. As one of the only landlocked municipalities in Italy it occupies an important and central location historically, culturally, and politically. It consists of 60 plus micro cities which existed before Italy became a unified nation in 1861. These micro cities are traditional centers of some of the most iconic products and crafts such as olive oil, ceramics, wine making, and textiles. The municipality tries to keep distinctive characteristics of each micro city by proposing facilities that can be used to give a strong identity to each community to be shared by different sectors and connects to the entire Perugia municipality. Their effort is to retain unique urbanity of each microcity without transformation of these places into generic suburban entities. The topography of its historical center which is up on a hill and the microcities at the base are surrounded by rural productive landscape which makes for a dramatic scenery between urban space and natural landscapes.

The studio will analyze the culture and history of Perugia to come up with programs for one of the micro cities to propose systematic and prototypical intervention into the existing context. This intervention can be a prototype for other microcities so that the analysis and the process is also a significant factor as well as the final design.

The studio is an architecture studio with some urban design and landscape design components. The studio encourages students to produce work individually with different modes of production.

The studio will travel to the site in October. 
 

Note regarding the Fall 2025 GSD academic calendar: The first day of classes, Tuesday, September 2nd, is held as a MONDAY schedule at the GSD. This studio will meet for the first time on Wednesday, September 3rd.