Arkansas Models for Italy?
The Italian village Cervara di Roma seeks new job opportunities for its young people.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas researchers have helped create a multinational, interdisciplinary study center that will breathe life into Cervara di Roma, a tiny Italian hill town facing major problems.
UA landscape architecture faculty flew to Cervara to brainstorm on economic development of Cervara’s scenic and cultural riches (left to right: professors John Crone, Laurie Fields, Mark Boyer, Fran Beatty and Judy Brittenum). |
“If the goal of the University of Arkansas is to be a research institution serving Arkansas and the world, then I think we are really doing that here,” said Davide Vitali, director of the UA’s Rome Center for Architecture and the Humanities and leader of the Cervara project. “We are addressing real problems, and the School of Architecture has offered models and solutions that will work here.”
Founded by Benedictine monks more than 1,200 years ago and long a mecca for poets and artists, Cervara offers a rich stock of sun-washed architecture and stunning views of the Simbruini Mountains. However, economic changes and some formidable logistical challenges undermine the town’s potential for survival. Cervara has suffered a long decline since World War II as its young people have left farming for jobs in nearby Rome. The city’s population has dipped below 500 in recent years. The aging populace (about 75 percent are over age 60, Vitali speculates) confronts thorny barriers to economic development, including a 115-foot climb from automobile parking to the historic medieval village.
Vitali credits the School of Architecture’s landscape architecture faculty for bringing a fresh perspective to Cervara’s problems, especially regarding management of the nearby Monti Simbruini Regional Park.
Cervara sketch by UA student Remick Moore. |
Among the models offered by UA faculty was Garvan Woodland Gardens, the School’s botanical garden in Hot Springs. Under the direction of Dean Jeff Shannon, landscape architecture faculty and Gardens staff, Garvan Gardens has evolved into a tourist and educational resource that has already doubled its attendance figures since opening in 2002.
“Now the Gardens is one of the players in the tourism industry in Hot Springs — and that translates into tourist dollars that support the city’s hotels and restaurants,” said Fran Beatty, head of the UA landscape architecture department. The high quality of the Gardens’ design and programming has garnered substantial support: “We’ve added more than $10 million in capital improvement projects in the past five years, with almost two-thirds of this figure funded by private individuals,” Beatty added.
Vitali and Italian officials, including Cervara’s mayor, are confident that the university’s stewardship of Garvan Woodland Gardens provides a model that could work in Italy. With Cervara located just 40 miles east of Rome, continued faculty input on sustainable, historically sensitive development is also critical.
Architecture student Tyler Pyle sketches in Cervara. |
“Gabriel brought in models of student work on public housing — he showed that the university can bring physical help to the community,” Vitali said. “In Europe this model is not well known; universities primarily work on abstract problems.”
Cervara’s dream of a study center will become a reality next summer. Renovations are currently under way in the town’s historic school, which will house the center, and Vitali is working with local authorities to secure funds and staff. Already students and professors from the University of Arkansas and other universities journey to Cervara to study the region’s rich history, culture, architecture and urban form. Eventually, Vitali hopes that the study center will promote academic research and provide real solutions for the people of Cervara.
Located in a palazzo near the Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome, the University of Arkansas Rome Study Center for Architecture and the Humanities immerses architecture and liberal arts students in an urban environment that records more than 2,500 years of history in its strata. The university’s program is enhanced by an exchange relationship with the Universita Degli Studi Roma Tre that is considered a milestone effort in collaboration between American and Italian universities. To learn more about the UA Rome Study Center and the Cervara project, visit http://www.arkrome.it/pagine_web/cervara_main.htm.
Contacts
Fran Beatty,
head, department of landscape architecture
School of
Architecture
(479) 575-4907, fbeatty@uark.edu
Kendall
Curlee,
director of communications
School of
Architecture
(479) 575-4704, kcurlee@uark.edu
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