Nick De Pace

Senior Critic - Landscape Architecture
Image
RISD faculty member Nick De Pace
BARC, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design

Nick De Pace has taught in RISD’s Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture departments since 1999. In 2012 he was Chief Critic of RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome, which he participated in as a student at RISD in 1992–93. This summer he will teach an immersive field drawing course at RISD’s campus in Rome: the Palazzetto Cenci. In the fall he will lead a cross-disciplinary design studio on the mechanics and craft of the scenic arts with support from the Turner Theatrical and Performance Design Fund and the Department of Interior Architecture.

Between 1996 and 2001, De Pace was project designer for the of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC under design architect Friedrich St. Florian. Since 2002, he has designed numerous award-winning residential and commercial projects through his independent practice, Ad Hoc/Architecture in Providence.

De Pace’s interest in ancient infrastructural systems, territorial land-water management and the 18th-century drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi led to a Fulbright Fellowship in 2005 to document the Emissarium of Lake Albano, a monumental subterranean water conduit of ancient Roman engineering. Since being certified in urban speleology by Roma Sotterranea, he has collaborated on numerous archaeological activities, most recently the architectural reconstructions for the forthcoming publication on the Villa Magna Project in southern Latium.

Courses

Fall 2023 Courses

LDAR 2204-02 - CONSTRUCTED LANDSCAPES STUDIO
Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LDAR 2204-02

CONSTRUCTED LANDSCAPES STUDIO

Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 6
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: TTH | 1:10 PM - 5:10 PM; T | 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM Instructor(s): Nick De Pace Location(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 200B Enrolled / Capacity: 14 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This core studio stresses middle scale landscape architectural design. A series of studio problems will explore urban public spaces. Students will endeavor to represent contemporary cultural and ecological ideas in land form. There will be an emphasis on constructive strategies, the use of plants in design and methods of representation.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $250.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture Students.

Major Requirement | MLA-I, MLA-II Landscape Architecture

INTAR 501G-01 / LDAR 501G-01 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB: MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS
Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture; Interior Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture Interior Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

INTAR 501G-01 / LDAR 501G-01

SUSTAINABILITY LAB: MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS

Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture; Interior Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture Interior Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: TH | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructor(s): Nick De Pace Location(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 305 Enrolled / Capacity: 14 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This 3-credit elective centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to New England, this skill-building seminar will explore one selected material each year and expose students to different techniques and methods of researching and working with the region's intrinsic materials.

In tandem with the co-requisite studio, students will collaborate with expert scientists, artists, craftspeople, and designers to refine their material literacy and develop multiple hands-on explorations that go beyond our disciplinary conventions to generate innovative fabrication techniques and applications for the built environment. This process includes becoming familiar with a material's inherent characteristics and behaviors, its composition and connection to vernacular and craft, and finally, developing novel research methods for design that rely on physical experimentation. 

This is a co-requisite course. Students must register for LDAR/INTAR-500G and LDAR/INTAR-501G.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture Graduate Students.

Elective

INTAR 501G-01 / LDAR 501G-01 - SUSTAINABILITY LAB: MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS
Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture; Interior Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture Interior Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

INTAR 501G-01 / LDAR 501G-01

SUSTAINABILITY LAB: MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS

Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture; Interior Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture Interior Architecture
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: TH | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructor(s): Nick De Pace Location(s): Weybosset St Studios, Room 305 Enrolled / Capacity: 14 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This 3-credit elective centers around the Sustainability Lab, an initiative between LDAR and INTAR departments to explore creative material approaches to sustainability. Looking specifically at materials common to New England, this skill-building seminar will explore one selected material each year and expose students to different techniques and methods of researching and working with the region's intrinsic materials.

In tandem with the co-requisite studio, students will collaborate with expert scientists, artists, craftspeople, and designers to refine their material literacy and develop multiple hands-on explorations that go beyond our disciplinary conventions to generate innovative fabrication techniques and applications for the built environment. This process includes becoming familiar with a material's inherent characteristics and behaviors, its composition and connection to vernacular and craft, and finally, developing novel research methods for design that rely on physical experimentation. 

This is a co-requisite course. Students must register for LDAR/INTAR-500G and LDAR/INTAR-501G.

Students are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture Graduate Students.

Elective

Summer 2024 Courses

LDAR 1566-01 - *ITALY: PERSPECTIVES ON PIRANESI
Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Summer 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LDAR 1566-01

*ITALY: PERSPECTIVES ON PIRANESI

Level Graduate
Unit Landscape Architecture
Subject Landscape Architecture
Period Summer 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-06-01 to 2024-08-31
Instructor(s): Nick De Pace Enrolled / Capacity: 14 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the engraver, widely known for his picturesque illustrations of eighteenth-century Rome, was also a skilled architect, surveyor, curator, antiquarian and archaeologist, creating one of the first comprehensibly visualized catalogs of roman antiquities. His apprenticeships to engineers, cartographers, theatrical scenographers, and muralists in his native Venice, unquestionably guided his imagination and acumen for the delineation and understanding of how to make pictures in light of the urban and natural landscapes as well as the interpretation of artifacts of roman antiquity. The "art and mind" of Piranesi continues to conjure the imagination of even most accomplished artists who study in Rome and remains a pivotal luminary used to orient studious visitors to the Eternal City and its vast visual metaphors and allusions. The course will cover Piranesi's essential contribution to our contemporary understanding of antiquity while presenting a practicum in the very image-making techniques used by Piranesi in the field. Workshops, tours, and lectures take place on the very sites of the artist's own discoveries, many which are emblematic of the scholarly and artistic pursuits of the Grand Tour at the forefront in Europe during Piranesi's life. This is an immersive and intense adventure into why artists and designers traditionally go to Rome and what they do while they are there: they draw, they explore and record what they see and experience so it can be shared with those who cannot. 

Students must complete an application through RISD Global to be added to this course. A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required, good conduct standing, and permission of the instructor. GPA, Student Conduct Standing, and standing with Equity and Compliance will be verified and may preclude a student from participation, either before or during the term. Most courses are open to first year students with approval from the Dean of Experimental and Foundation Studies.

Elective

Image
RISD faculty member Nick De Pace
BARC, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design