Other itineraries: modern architects on countryside roads

摘要

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the importance of the formative experience of travel for an architect had already been officially established. The most important academies and schools of architecture boasted a long tradition of granting the most prestigious award that a student could obtain: the Grand Prix de Rome. This award allowed deserving students or newly graduated architects to travel to Italy and to stay there for an extended period of time. The main purpose of travel was the direct acquaintance with, observation and surveying of buildings and classical monuments. Italy and Greece, especially the latter after obtaining its independence in 1835, became the favoured destinations of peregrinatio academica for a considerable number of scholarship fellows. Several architects went on study trips with no financial support from institutions, driven only by an awareness of the value of this experience. Others had to wait until they became financially independent; among these one might mention Alvar Aalto, who wrote of his first journey to Italy in 1924: 'This kind of travel is perhaps a conditio sine qua non for the work of an architect'.