"Ali e Radici": A New European Bauhaus Prototype for Sustainable Architecture and Transatlantic Co-Education between Rome and Arkansas

Abstract

This paper explores the Ali e Radici project, or Wings and Roots (Ali e Radici), a New European Bauhaus (NEB)-oriented model of an architectural and educational prototype, located in the Città Verde residential area in Cecchignola, Rome, and one of the first real-life applications of NEB concepts. The project is entirely financed and promoted by La Leva s.r.l., an internationally recognized leader in green construction that has developed Città Verde as a certified sustainable neighborhood achieving GBC Home® Silver certification for three buildings in the Smart District and pursuing dual GBC Home® and GBC Quartieri® certifications from Green Building Council Italia. The development has been recognized by ASviS (Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development) with the Certificate of Good Territorial Practice for a more sustainable Italy.
Conceived and curated by artist Marko Guglielmi Reimmortal, the project strategically orchestrates a network of Italian and American institutions to embody the core concept of the artwork: intergenerational and international dialogue. The curatorial vision deliberately connects Italian primary schools, secondary art schools (liceo artistico), and universities with their American counterparts, creating a generational arc from childhood through higher education. The transatlantic dimension is uniquely mediated through the University of Arkansas Rome Center, where American students from Arkansas study within Italian culture, creating a bridge between two continents that is physically anchored in Rome itself.
The project combines art-based approaches, sustainable building design, circular material cycles, and intergenerational pedagogy in this transatlantic co-educational framework. The analysis will aim to clarify the ways in which this cross-institutional partnership—carefully assembled by the artist to manifest the "wings and roots" metaphor—underlies the participatory and regenerative paradigms of sustainability in architectural education practices in peripheral urban contexts.