Day Twenty-Six

We met as a group at one of my favorite coffee bars in all of Rome, San Eustachio. After the morning caffe, we walked up to Piazza del Popolo. This is one of my favorite piazzas so far, it was wide open and modeled after the piazza at St. Peter's. We sat on the steps of the giant Egyptian obelisk in the center and listened to a couple presentations by Erin and Lauren. Notice the sky, this is the first overcast day we've had since we got to Rome, the clouds are a welcome sight, they kept it relatively cool today, though it's still very muggy...

Then we visited the Ara Pacis, an altar to Augustan peace. Joey gave a really great presentation about Augustus and about the monument itself. Nice work Joey. Nice name too. In the basement of the building housing the Ara Pacis is an exhibit about a designer named Jean Prouve. It was a really great exhibit to see. He built many pieces of furniture and came up with some pretty innovative ways of using sheet steel. Also, he designed many houses and buildings, many having a modular construction and all exhibiting light, airy qualities. This exhibit really got me excited about the upcoming year at school. I liked his style, and some of his quotes were inspiring to me as I get ready to begin my first year of education in Industrial design....

"I am haunted by a passion to build."

"...man must not allow himself to plagiarize. He is on this earth to create."

"Architecture must come from industrial design, which will bring it into harmony with the achievements of science."

We were not allowed to take photos, but I found an image of my favorite piece of furniture that I saw today. I like this desk because even though it is constructed of heavy steel and wood, look how light it seems, as if it is floating above the ground.....