Discovering Aldo Rossi: Architectural Theories and Legacy

“The architect accepted the assignment in 1983, designing the long-awaited business center. In fact, in the previous decade, the international competition launched by the municipal administration had been cancelled, since the winning project was too oversized and expensive to afford, especially because of the crisis that ran in the Seventies.”

Defining Rossi’s Architectural Theories

Aldo Rossi (1931-1997)

“It is clear that Rossi’s theories evolve as he refines them throughout his career, much like any architect. However, unlike most, they do not radically change as he makes new realizations about architecture”

Aldo Rossi Architecture and Style

Rossi was the first Italian to win the Pritzker Prize for architecture. He designed the long brick-paved pedestrian square that followed the natural slope, similar to other Umbrian squares placed in the Italian city center. Looking for dialogue and integration with the past, Aldo Rossi – in this as in many other projects – makes use of archetypes, repeated elementary geometric forms in the history of architecture, easily recognizable and capable of making the project surprisingly innovative and traditional at the same time. In this regard, someone wanted to see in Piazza Nuova the modern revival of Piazza IV Novembre with the stems of San Lorenzo, Palazzo dei Priori and the Fontana Maggiore. Wholesome and indispensable geometries are also repeated in his projects as the designers; at the commencement of the 1980s, Rossi dedicated himself to this type of activity by designing miniature architectures for Alessi, generating poetic small-scale domestic landscapes; the Tea & Coffee Piazza project is the realization of this characterization.

Aldo Rossi Architecture and Art of the Analogue City

Walking towards the park, you can notice an inquisitive conical brick structure dating back to the 1920s, which breaks the consequence. It is the evidence of its original use, proposed for one of the most important activities of Perugia; this brick tower is in fact a find of industrialized archaeology: it is one of the old smokestacks of the Perugina confetti and chocolates factory that occupied this place from 1915 until 1965, the year of transfer to the new industrial plant in San Sisto.

The original project, which also included the construction of a theater, was never completed and Rossi’s Piazza Nuova never played the role of recent acropolis desired at the time of the project. However, the charm of the monument remains intact. 

Aldo Rossi’s Piazza Nuova is also intended to have a new redevelopment; work began on the execution of a project presented by the municipal authority, who finally manages to have the long-awaited social and urban role thought by Rossi.

Aldo Rossi: The City as The Locus of Collective Memory and the Making of the Public City in Cold War Italy by Sonia Melani Miller 

Aldo Rossi (1931-1997), an Italian architect known for having reestablished symbolism to European architecture after the 1960s. Rossi’s theory of city morphology, proposed that it was rooted in “antifascist sentiments” and influenced by politics of the Cold War. Rossi’s professional growth is outlined through a period conditioned by the reactionary philosophies of postwar Europe, which deeply disposed of the nation’s culture and shaped artistic production. Rossi’s early career documented the leading political and logical ideas of his time. 

Rossi’s growing interest in developing the concept for a type of architecture and urban design rationale in form and communist in content, driven by the ethos of an emerging political Port. Rossi’s work was contextualized in the efforts of a generation of Italian architects who conducted joint research on behalf of the Ina-casa program of national reconstruction in concurrence with the era’s leading politicians. This corroborated effort ultimately led Rossi to develop theories for a structuralist reading of the city, as well as to the design of a type of humanist architecture in backing of the communal consciousness of the Italian “public city” in the latter half of the twentieth century.”

Aldo Rossi’s Search for Truth and Constancy

Aldo Rossi is widely considered to be the father of neo rationalism and one of the distinguished architectural figures of the late 20th century. His expertise and artistic contributions span not only the field of architecture and theory, but also drawing and product design. He studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, graduating in 1959 and seven years later published Architetturadella Città (The Architecture of the City), his most influential work. 

It quickly harvested commendation and recognized him as a “leading architectural theoretician”— he refined and developed his architectural theories for the following 20 years, not taking on many definite projects. His career can be divided into two distinct phases, with the second being his beginning to build extensively in the late 1970s. He was extolled for his timeless style and consistency, winning the Pritzker Prize in 1990 with critics at the time such as Ada Louis Huxtable describing him as “a poet who happens to be an architect.

Aldo Rossi’s complicated theories are ultimately governed by a commitment to constancy, a philosophy confirmed by the persistent, ethical implementation defining the relationship between the theoretical and building phases of his architectural style and career. For Rossi; “truth is defined by that which never fails to exist, which in his case, is architectural forms throughout history”. He never fully discovers the truth, however. In 1980, reflecting on his works, his explanations on the temporary nature of his projects, remarking that it is only normal for human work to be momentary, “whether it be destroyed by the whims … of politicians or whether with time it becomes part of nature.”  However, while human work may disappear, there will always be a remnant that defines the timeless architectural truth. He then remarks, that “indeed, of the fragments of ancient architecture that remain in the Greek coast.”

Bibliographic References

1. ©EREDI ALDO ROSSI, COURTESY FONDAZIONE ALDO ROSSI

https://divisare.com/projects/419060-aldo-rossi-moira-forastiere-la-piazza-nuova-di-fontivegge

2. https://www.aboutumbriamagazine.eu/2020/06/24/aldo-rossi-and-piazza-nuova-in-fontivegge/

3.