Bernard Tschumi Architects has unveiled the schematic design for the firm's first work in Italy: ANIMA, a new cultural center in the city of Grottammare. The project has been commissioned by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ascoli Piceno and the Municipality of Grottammare and is expected to be completed by 2016. — bustler.net

Wright aficionado and architect Paolo Bulletti has launched an effort to purchase the 1954 Bachman Wilson House, one of Wright’s Usonian Houses in New Jersey, and transport the structure to the town of Fiesole outside Florence. — blogs.artinfo.com

Luxury fashion will meet Roman architecture as Italian fashion house Fendi has pledged €2.1 million to restore five of Rome’s beloved fountains, including the iconic Trevi Fountain.

Fendi, founded in Rome in the 1920s, is now part of French luxury giant LVMH. The fashion house opted to invest in restoring one of Rome’s architectural treasures due to a self-described “deep bond with the Eternal City.” — DesignBuild Source

Back in 2011 we reported on the Bosco Verticale — a new superstructure designed to bring the world's first vertical forest to Milan, Italy. While many were skeptical when it came to the feasibility of construction, Boeri Studio reports that the structure is certainly more than just a fantasy - in fact it's well on its way to being completed this year. — Inhabitat

Eighteen feet below one of Rome’s most-trafficked junctions is a 900-seat arts center dating back to the second-century reign of Emperor Hadrian, Italian archaeologists have announced.

The discovery, widely seen as the most important in Rome in 80 years, came as a result of digging for the city’s third subway line. Archeologists spent the last five years excavating two halls of the structure under the Piazza Venezia, which is believed to be an arts center, or auditorium, built by Hadrian. — artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

The jury – composed of the directors of the MAXXI, representatives of the MoMA and Constructo in Santiago Chile – met on Wednesday 28 November to select the five finalists who, by January 2013, must present their projects for the realisation of a temporary space for live summer events in the MAXXI Plaza. The jury will meet once again to select the project to be constructed and inaugurated in June. — fondazionemaxxi.it

After the success linked to their Rolex Learning Centre, built on the campus of EPFL Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, SANAA again set out to design a non-hierarchal relationship between the elements of a landscape that is human before it is architectural. The campus lies on the former site of Milan's Centrale del Latte (milk-processing plant), whose north side is attached to the university's existing complex. — domusweb.it

Italian architect, designer and teacher Gae Aulenti died late on Wednesday at her Milan home. She was 85 years old and had been ill for some time. Born in Palazzolo della Stella near the northern city of Udine, Aulenti trained as an architect at Milan's Polytechnical University graduating in 1959 and quickly became one of the few well-recognized women working in Italian postwar design. — ansamed.info

Restoration of the monument, which attracts up to two million visitors a year, is due to go ahead in March and will involve cleaning of the travertine exterior, the restoration of underground chambers, new gating, the moving of visitor service stations to an area outside of the building itself and increased video security. — edition.cnn.com

Two winners, one special prize, and eleven honorable mentions have been announced in the Venice CityVision Competition. The international ideas competition routinely challenges architects, engineers, designers, students and creative individuals to develop visionary urban proposals with the intention of stimulating and supporting the contemporary city, in this case Venice. — bustler.net