Professor Gavin Smith and Students Visit Italy as Part of International Learning Lab
![Ryan Anderson, Kelby Stallings, and fellow students prior to a site visit in Accumoli, Italy.](https://design.ncsu.edu/landscape-architecture/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/04/smith-2024-2_web.jpg)
Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Gavin Smith, PhD, FAICP, along with MLA Students Ryan Anderson and Kelby Stallings visited Italy April 9-14 as part of an international research, engagement and educational consortium. The partnership was developed last summer by Dr. Smith and a range of faculty who met in Cambridge, England, and serves as part of a larger international learning lab being developed at NC State to include additional partners in New Zealand and Australia.
The trip focused on site visits to the small and mid-sized mountain communities of Amatrice, Acoumoli, and L’Aquila, each devastated by a series of earthquakes. Teams of faculty and students from participating universities in the US, Italy, England, Turkey and India met with local officials to understand location-specific issues and determine how the consortium could provide targeted assistance tied to three primary themes: infrastructure, culture, and healthcare resilience. The next steps for the consortium include developing an applied research, engagement and educational agenda focused on international lesson-drawing.
![Amatrice, Italy, following the devasting earthquake of 2016.](https://design.ncsu.edu/landscape-architecture/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/04/smith-2024-3_web.jpg)
![Ceiling detail of building being restored in L'Aquila, Italy following the 2009 earthquake.](https://design.ncsu.edu/landscape-architecture/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/04/smith-2024-1_web-1024x768.jpg)
![Ryan Anderson, Kelby Stallings, and fellow students prior to a site visit in Accumoli, Italy.](https://design.ncsu.edu/landscape-architecture/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/04/smith-2024-2_web-1024x576.jpg)