Rome was liberating in so many ways. In parts of the city there was an unexpected coalescence of African and European sensibilities. The messiness of the urban fabric was also revelatory, with the organic quality of Roman city blocks and courtyards layered behind the ordered facades of the streets.

It was experientially so different from the suburban South Africa in which Suzanne Hall grew up. Having lived in the divided landscapes of Johannesburg and Cape Town, Hall went on to run her own small architecture practice after graduating, and came to Rome for nine months in 1998 on a South African Rome Scholarship in Architecture.

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