British School at Rome in the Spotlight

The Times article, Thursday October 10 2002

Robert Adam Architects involvement in the British School at Rome’s renovation programme has recently been documented in the National press following the completion of phase one of the new building project. The school is a centre for advanced British and Commonwealth archaeological, historical and artistic study in Italy, housing scholars, visitors and an important library. The building, largely designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1911, had fallen into disrepair, prompting the school to appoint Robert Adam Architects as masterplanners its the repair and modernisation. Since this point in 1989, various phases of work have been executed in conjunction with the Italian firm Garofalo Miura Architetti.  

Most recently, Hugh Petter of Robert Adam Architects prepared feasibility studies for two major extensions, a new library wing and a multipurpose lecture theatre/exhibition facility. These conceptual designs were developed and extended by Garofalo Miura Architetti with Hugh Petter acting as a consultant on the classical detail and as an advisor to the building subcommittee. The designs for the library façade draw upon and adapt an unrealised design by Lutyens, suggesting the new facilities are a natural progression of the architect’s original work. The lecture theatre entrance aptly refers to elements or Sir Christopher Wren’s work, given that it was this architects design for the upper tier of the West from of St. Paul’s Cathedral that Lutyens originally reworked in 1911. Coinciding with the extension of the National Gallery of Modern Art next door, the school has acquired an even greater sense of significance, gaining an entrance on the same piazza in the heart of the Villa Borghese Gardens. 

Country Life, November 21, 2002