ROME SKETCHES (RS) INTRODUCTION

The Rome Sketches is a series of pieces which I began after my final term of Architecture School in Italy, from May to July, 2022. I had the privilege to spend 3 months living in the Trastevere neighbourhood taking trips from Paestum in the South all the way up to Venice.  These trips were led by none other than the Waterloo legend Rick Haldenby, a man who was instrumental in the foundations of the school’s pedagogy, who introduced and has taught the Rome program for 43 years. My respect and gratitude for Rick’s teaching has only grown during the writing of these passages, I have come to understand that the power of Rick’s teaching was in its breadth, something which comes with a deep love, and long relationship with the subject matter. This breadth and depth meant that we could each draw our own conclusions about the places we were visiting. It was not that Rick did not impart his own opinions or tell his own stories pertaining to his relation to these places, but indeed because of these factors that we were free to take or leave aspects to make our own realities and reactions with them. The final thing I will say is that Rick’s life story, Waterloo Architecture, and the Rome program all follow the same thread – and it is pulled by Rick’s passion and life’s work. The stories which I tell here I hope to be the beginning of my own practice in passion, finding the story which I will keep with me as time passes. 

Here is the result of a few months of stolen moments of reflection from the Croatian countryside, among friends and family. 

Dedicated to Rick, Garrett, Gareth, Carter, and all three of my grandparents.