Across the Texts

Author(s): Carlo Olmo and Jessica Levine

Source: Assemblage, No. 5 (Feb., 1988), pp. 90-121
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3171028
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Translatedfrom the Italian by
JessicaLevine
CarloOlmo is Professor of Historyof
Architecture and Vice Directorof the
Ph.D. programin Historyof Architecture
andTownPlanningat TurinPolytech-
nic. He is the authorof bookson modern
Europeanarchitecture and townplan-
ning, publishedby Einaudi.
1 (frontispiece). Aldo Rossi,
Composition for the Analogous
City, 1970
Carlo Olmo
Across the Texts
The architecturalwritingsand the fragmentsof critical re-
flection that accompany an architect'sproduction are often
proposedas keys for reading that illustrateand explain his
architecturalworks.' Rarely-and often accompanied by a
didactic reduction of its writing-the architecturaltext re-
discovers its own autonomy: it seems as though the Loos of
Trotzdemas well as the Le Corbusierof Vers une architec-
ture explain prototypes(or archetypes),if not architectures
themselves.
Writing, designing, and building constitute three moments
in the representationand organizationof reality, whose
interdependenceseems increasinglyfragile and yet needs to
be demonstratedeach time, just as those interpretations
that force the written work to explain the design and the
design to prefigurethe building seem less and less convinc-
ing. And if one fact is striking,but unconvincing, in the
rich historiographyon Aldo Rossi it is the connection of
the writing to the design or the building, a connection that
has not always been motivated by the positions Rossi has
taken during the course of a production that now spans
more than thirty years.
To focus one's attention on the text, on the writings, is not
to propose an image of an Aldo Rossi as theorist, after or
opposed to the image of Aldo Rossi architect or designer;
nor is it to search for an a posteriorilegitimation of this or
that interpretation.As is also the case with other architects,
this focus signals the need to renderthe complexity of an
91
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intellectual's presence, which thQgrowing autonomy of
marketsfor books, images, and the home tends to frag-
ment-without, however, making complexity synonymous
with unitariness.
Aldo Rossi's designs and projectsare not significantsolely
within a conceptual process:and the fate of some of his
texts, for example, has had nothing to do with the herme-
neutics of production. A proposalfor readingthat fails to
take into account this possible autonomy would certainly
remain the prisoner of a theory of architecturestill
founded on an aesthetics of mirroring.2
Citations within Rationalism
and Constant Shifts of Meaning
Aldo Rossi's critical work began with Casabella, under the
direction of Ernesto Nathan Rogers, but also within a
group of architects and critics who belonged to the FGCI.
The militancy of the latterwas perhapsas importantas the
militancy of the study center at Casabella, which was bet-
ter known but may have been equally lacking in contex-
tualization. Rossi's participationin the journal began with
issue number 222 in 1958, in the company of Luciano
Semerani, Francesco Tentori, and Silvano Tintori. With
number 247 in 1961 he became coeditor with Tentori
(Vittorio Gregotti was then editor-in-chief); Rossi retained
that position until number 295 of 1964, when he and the
entire new editorial group, including Carlo Aymonino,
Matilda Baffa, Guido Cannella, Aurelio Cortesi, Semer-
ani, and Tintori, left the publication.
Rossi's early writings-among them one most frequently
evoked by him, "La coscienza di poter 'dirigerela natura,"'
of 19543-did not originate solely in his experienceat Casa-
bella. They also reflect the contradictoryformationof a
Marxistculture on housing and the city that defined itself
in an area between the discoveryof sociological inquiry,
neorealism (which led to a study of the locale, the quarter
or neighborhood as limit and measure of urban growth),
and the Galvano Della Volpe of Logic as a Positive Sci-
ence.4 Rossi's first disciplinarywritingsprovide autobio-
graphical startingpoints-the visit, for example, with
assemblage 5
KonradWachsmann and Wolfgang Frankl-and the terms
of his participationin that debate, proposingsingular curi-
osities and more usual arguments:thus Auguste Perretwas
the occasion of a first reflection on architectoniclanguage6
and Mario Ridolfi that of an interpretationof realism that
emphasized the relationshipbetween nature and local tra-
dition.7
But it was neoclassical Milanese architecturethat offered
Rossi his first chance to propose a theme that recursinto
the mid-1960s, that of architectureas a complex problem
of historicalknowledge. In "Il concetto di tradizione
nell'architetturamilanese"published in 1956, Rossi wrote,
"Since architectureimposes itself as a vast cultural move-
ment and is discussedand criticized outside a circle of spe-
cialists, it is necessaryfor there to exist a large progressive
movement in society and an interestin the public thing
that is, in itself, a sign of freedom."'8This social condition
asked the architect not to "look for an optimum theme,
but to find in the very theme proposed, in its limits, in its
particularproblems, the reasonsfor his own work."'The
two problematicswould, in Rossi's research, undergo var-
ious developments.
If reflection on the professionwas the main characteristic
of those years, the relationshipbetween architectureand
society would be the object of continual shifts of meaning,
played essentiallyagainst a broadeningconcept of tradition:
Fromthis veryimpulserosethe conceptof traditionthatdefined
itselfnot as disciplinedandtimidsubjectionto the formalworld,
whichthe antiquitieshadexpressed,but as the freechoiceof
whathistorywasoffering,as the acceptedmeaningof an order
fromwhoseinteriorit waspossibleto climbto somethingelse,
largeand new, throughthe rationalcriticismof whathadbeen
done.10
The concept of traditionpresentedin the article of 1956
materializesout of referencesthat are also importantfor
understandingother topoi of Rossi'sresearch. For example:
the generativecapacity of the urban plan, even when not
taken to term (the referenceis to Antolini's projectfor the
BonaparteForum), and the monument as a mirrorof civil
society ("Monumentsconsideredas the seat and evidence
of municipal history, which are placed at the end of ave-
nues and at the center of piazzas, as constitutionalele-
92

ments of that vasterplan of construction and orderingthat
history furnishes over time and in which cities come to
mirrorthemselves.").11 But the article on neoclassical Mil-
anese traditionalso demonstrateshow Rossi confronteda
theme that appearedrepeatedlybetween 1955 and 1957,
that of the locale. The locale, for Rossi, is a civil architec-
ture historicallyand stylisticallydated, an urban architec-
ture called upon to provokenot only impressionsand
observationsof an aesthetic nature, but also, and primarily,
moral feelings.12 And his rapportwith civil society plays
upon memory and morality. This accepted meaning of the
locale would explode in Rossi's subsequent research, lead-
ing him to place, provocatively,the lighthouse of Cabe
Espichel in Portugaland the architectureof the Po Valley
on the same level, and it would become one of the sites
favoredby the ambiguity of his critical thinking."
In articles written over the following two years, Rossi ex-
panded the two themes of traditionand of the relationship
between architectureand society. The discussion of what
Harold Rosenbergcalled in the late fifties "the traditionof
the new" developed in the direction-often followed and
ultimately enriched by Rossi---of the relationshipbetween
innovation and creation:14 "We are witnessing the possibil-
ity of building according to a reproduciblebuilding type,
instead of a will to conceive new formal solutions."'5 The
reference is to AlessandroAntonelli, but the theme of in-
vention, realized by composing and recomposinga few
simple elements, reappearsthroughout Rossi'sprose, al-
though it was, at the time, occasionally transcribedin the
language of Wachsmann.16
The theme of invention had contemporaryreferencesin
the studies of John Summerson, Pierre Francastel, and
Guilio Carlo Argan, and was expressedin an idea that may
be one of the most central to Aldo Rossi'scritical reflec-
tion: the rupturebetween neoclassical architectureand
eclectic architecture, between "model and type."'7Anto-
nelli was, moreover, an importantsource in that period:
one only has to think of RobertoGabetti and Aimaro
Isola.Is But, for Rossi, Antonelli and eclecticism especially
representeda passing interest on the way towarda defini-
tion of rationality-which soon emerged in a review of
FrangoisCali's L'Ordregrec.19
Olmo
The rationalitythat Rossi defined, insofar as it was techni-
cal, could propose new relationshipsbetween known com-
positional elements; but it could not innovate the formal
repertoriesof architecture. It was a rationalitythat rejected
the formal resolution of the historical avant-gardes:"There
where modern architecturehad a civil commitment and
concerned itself with following the progressivethrust of so-
ciety, it detached itself clearly from formal terrorismof a
decadent type."20 The criticism Rossi producedat the time
went so far as to negate the very concept of autonomy for
what defined itself as the modern movement: "From this
presumed autonomy of art and of man, one quickly
reaches the negation of art and the most total expressive
inability."21
Aldo Rossi's approachto neoclassical architecturefollowed
two paths:one was phenomenological and concerned with
reading the buildings and monuments of Milanese neo-
classical architecture;the other was conceptual, marked,
also in its indebtedness, by his review of Emil Kaufmann's
Architecturein the Age of Reason.22 Nonetheless, the as-
sumption of a form of rationalityas a relationalstructure
was perhapsdue as much to the contemporaryreflections
of Enzo Paci on Husserl and Merleau-Ponty,as it was to
the rediscoveryof a "speakingarchitecture."23
Between 1955 and 1959, the same discussion of model and
type would, on the other hand, include workswith a dif-
ferent critical intention: between Panofsky'sMeaning in
Visual Art and Brandi'sEliante o dell'architetturathere
appearedsuch widely circulated essays as Bettini's"Critica
semantica."24
But Rossi's specificity seemed linked in those years essen-
tially to a reading in the field, to a debt that was phenom-
enological, not historiographicalor semiological-which
his Scientific Autobiographywould later tend to expand
beyond the boundariesof Milan and Lombardy.25If the
relationshipbetween creation and stylistic innovation con-
stituted perhapsthe most continuous ground of elaboration
for Rossi, the sociality of architecture,a much more dated
theme, presenteditself as an instrumentfor the sure con-
textualizationof his texts.
93

Even in this case the citations are both common-art nou-
veau, for example26-and more unexpected. Once again it
was his reflection on neoclassical architecturethat offered
the base for the clearest arguments:"The vrais principes
should necessarilylead to a new communicability, in a
logical form that explains all the requirementsof the spirit
of modern society."27
The essential contradictionbetween a form of rationality
assumed as a relational structureand the social perspective
of the neo-Enlightenment cannot be hidden. But there are
works, besides the repeatedreferencesto Hauser and
Mumford, that contribute to an understandingof how
writersin those years tried to deepen the theme of social
rationality.Perhapsthe most telling texts-because they in-
dicate the diversityand multiplicity of approaches-are
works such as Paulsson'sDie soziale Dimension der Kunst,
Gutkind'sArchitetturae societa, and Morris'sSigns, Lan-
guage and Behavior.28 These texts, written at different
times, multiplied and amplified the discussion on the crisis
of scientific method and, as a group, provideda support
for revived social determinisms:between neopositivismand
behaviorism, the specter of options as well as of vacilla-
tions stretchedalmost to infinity.
The nonlinearity of Aldo Rossi's itinerarydoes not present
itself as a necessary homage to new critical paradigms,be-
cause today the destructuringof historyappearsto be taken
for granted. Rather, theoretical and operativeresearchon
architectureand urban planning, especially in the social
sciences, addressesthe home and the city with increasing
frequency;and such researchis quoted by architecturaland
urban studies, in a multiplication of images of the city in
the interpretativemirrorof those years. In 1959 Rossi
wrote about Adolf Loos and Mies van der Rohe for the
first time.29 The two articles, which are brief and some-
what elliptical, did more than signal a returnto citations of
architecturalrationalismthat Rossi would continue into
the early sixties.30 Moreover, they were not historicalessays
(in the case of Mies, in fact, the referencewas only to the
Seagram Building). What was relevant in these articles
was, above all, the investigationof the compositional prob-
lem of architecture:"Unlike the architectsof the Seces-
assemblage 5
sion, Loos did not design, that is, he did not invent any
detail: his architectureis the conformationof an idea that
is alreadyclear in the details, the edge of every partcon-
tinually rediscoversthe boundariesof geometry.""'And on
Mies, "Architecture,that is, the problemsof the spirit, as
Mies van der Rohe says, does not reside in the house it-
self, in the problem, but in the way, the 'how' it is con-
fronted. The decisive characterof the work residesin the
evaluation of the problem it poses."32
Rossi'scritical, but not yet theoretical, language began to
articulatea few intuitions in a more detailed fashion:ge-
ometry and objects, architectureand method. This lan-
guage led him to combine his reflection on architectural
texts (those of Loos, but also of Tessenow)with a new in-
terest in an architecturethat did not belong to the masters
(that of Ungers and L'Atelier 5 of Bern, affinitiesdestined
to last), at the same time as he retaineda strong interest in
the urban phenomenologies of Milan." Loos and Mies did
not, therefore, present themselves as "the sources"of the
Rossian poetic: Aldo Rossi'sarchitectonicimaginarypre-
sented itself as more constructed,without simple keys,
more distributedin its citations.
Furthermore,in his inquiries in the field, Rossi almost al-
ways workedin a group:with Polesello and Tentori, but
also with Semerani and Canella, proposingfor this phase
of his productiona problem whose significance would be
recognized:that of tendenza. If in the 1960s tendenza was
born of the will to affirman "architectureof silence,"34
between 1960 and 1965 the choice to speakcollectively
was born of the requirementthat the "theoryand criticism
of architectureshould deal with more than one thousandth
of what is being built in the world."" And this choice un-
doubtedly originatedin the interplaybetween the study
center of Casabella and the Marxistculture alreadymen-
tioned. The recognition of architectureas a collective pro-
cess and product, which can (still?)only be verifiedby
constructinga theory or a method, the refusalto abandon
the construction of the city to emerging formal models of
planning, and the discussion about the languages of mod-
ern architectureconstitutedthe essential elements of a re-
flection and practicethat were almost always collective.36
94

But Rossi's articles and studies never confronted the prob-
lem of the construction of the city in a global fashion.
Beginning with the initial work conducted with Silvano
Tintori on the urbanisticaspects of the backwardareas of
Italy and Europe, his interest was in the definition of an
operable and recognizable"measure"of architectureon an
urban scale.17 In an article on the XII Triennale, Rossi
and Francesco Tentori wrote, "As complex and polycentric
as the organizationof a modern city may be, one can say
that the phenomenon we have indicated above-the rare-
faction and finally the absence of elements organizingso-
cial life-is becoming progressivelymore accentuated as
the city expands, in sectors increasinglyfar from the primi-
tive center.""38
The initial scale of reflection was, as for many Italian ar-
chitects in those yeas, the neighborhood in the expanding
city. Rossi and Tentori closely followed a debate that was
greatlyindebted to Anglo-Saxon thinking, while dwelling
on the definition of constructionaland residentialtypolo-
gies: "one based on the idea of the courtyard,or on the
reconstructionof the neighborhood unit as it existed in ag-
riculturalcommunities and historical habitats;[and] one
based, rather,on an attempt to recreate, instead of a static
unit (the courtyard),a dynamic unit for the entire commu-
nity, through an attempt to refuse constructionalelements
and bodies, as was the case in the traditionalstreet.""39 The
transformationof "the breakingpoints of the urban tissue
into suture points"and the reaffirmationof the organiza-
tional elements of social life were issues that, for Rossi and
Tentori, did not arise in schools, parksand gardens, or in
urban design.40 Interventionought to take place in the area
of constructionaland residentialtypology, in a bond neces-
sarily determined between urban morphologyand building
typology:"We believe, and we have tried to demonstrate,
that the problem of the internal organizationof dwellings
can be resolved in the very heart of the city to which it is
deeply tied.'"41Such an intervention once again excluded
formal innovation: "We do not believe that designing a
house today, for a problem of this kind, can be the object
of architecturalinvention; what mattersratheris the verifi-
cation of what has been done-and the proposal, when
possible, of general improvementsor the possibilitiesof
insertion in a precise situation.'"42
Olmo
Rossi and Tentori'sarticle was written in 1960; its lan-
guage, perhapsmore than its cultural referents,is close to
what one might call the Anglo-Saxon revision of rational-
ism. In fact, the assumption of the neighborhood unit as
the beginning of socialization and the replacementof the
family unit by the social group were mitigated by the op-
position between, on the one hand, the bond between
neighborhood and community, and, on the other, the
"searchfor the historical value of the city, as an expression
of maximum social organization."'74 A historicityof what
was being built, recognizable essentiallyfrom the use of
building typologies and urban morphologies analyzed over
time, is the prevalentfact to emerge from their readingof
the suburbsand of the modern city-which rapidlybe-
came critical and provocativewith regardto the paradigms
of rationalismand the Italian left.
The refusal to recognize in the artisticrupture, in Her-
bert'sArtistic and Social Reform,the epoch6that legiti-
mizes the new architecture;the search in a "more
prolonged time" for a rapportbetween the physical and so-
cial organizationof space; and the criticism of intellectual
formalism rooted in the debate of the Italian left, all this
led perhapsto an emphasis on rituals(Mosca and his sub-
way especially caused a sensation).44 At the same time, the
ironization of the social vocation of Italian architecture
continued:
What, in fact, is the use of proclaimingthe continualneedto
adhereto the realityin becomingof the Italianpeople,whenthat
realityis unknown,when the senseandvelocityof becomingare
beinginventedor intuited,when, lastly,the traditionof the Ital-
ian peopleis beinginventedor intuited,and it is beingattributed
a baggageof memories. . . thatonly the architecthas rediscov-
eredin an extremelyviolentdisagreement withthoseverysocial
classesforwhomhis workshad been destined.45
Rossi's thinking between 1961 and 1964 closely followed
the path markedby these collaborativeessays, waveringbe-
tween, on the one hand, a dialogue with events and the
texts circulated in those years-his bibliographyisolates,
for example, the seminar on the city-region held by the
ILSES and Stresain 1960 as well as the texts of Bahrdt
95

and Reiner46-and, on the other, the necessity of founding
"theoretically"his own design practice:"The situation is
such that it contains an ideological commitment before a
technical one, and also such that, as happens in these
cases, theoretical study and practicalaction cannot be sep-
arated."47And it was through this analytical obsession that
the analysis of the city and its partscame to be better de-
fined-an analysis that would characterizeRossi'sthinking
for many years.
His startingpoint was a reiteratedcriticism of the prevalent
manner of confronting the relationshipbetween suburbs
and city center, between developing areas and areaswith
specialized functions, such as the historicalcenters were
becoming. His reflection centered on both concepts-the
metropolis and the city-region-as well as on phenomenol-
ogies, especially Vienna and Berlin.41
The dangerouscontrastbetweenthe twoextremes,thatis to say,
betweenthe extremedispersionof the city, on the one hand,and
the verydensecrammingof the internalneighborhoods, on the
other,forciblyinvertedthe termsof the question:whatis needed
is a concentrationof the externalareasanda thinningout of the
city'sinterior.49
This meant a city more and better defined in its urban
morphologies and in its constructionaltypologiesand
whose construction could only emerge from a simulta-
neously quantitativeand serial study of the architectural
and urban heritage, of the area where interventionwas to
take place.
Such was the crux around which gravitatedmany of the
problems for which Rossi would eventually find very differ-
ent solutions: the serial ratherthan quantitativebase of an
architecturalchoice that was still founded on relational
structuresratherthan on disaggregatingparts;a rapportbe-
tween knowledge and intervention, increasinglyconfined
to the architecturalheritage, which enabled Rossi to bor-
row Marcel Poete's concept of the permanence of the form
of the city and to suggest architecture'sautonomy from the
social realm; a historicityof places based upon endurance
and on minimal disorientations,defined by continuities
and not by formal or symbolic exigencies. 0 The relational
structuresthat the building typologies and urban morphol-
ogies displayed enabled Rossi to "shift"the ground of com-
assemblage 5
position, but still without grantingit its autonomy;the
decision to measure the legitimacy of an intervention
against the permanence of forms regainedfor Rossi the au-
tonomy of a professionthat the prevalenceof the analytical
moment could dangerouslytip towardthe totalizing hori-
zons of the social; a historicitymeasuredagainstendur-
ance, and whose protagonistswere unknown, enabled
Rossi to distance himself from the neoromantic interpreta-
tions of the architectureof the mastersand from the reduc-
tion of functionalism to undifferentiatedpragmatism.
All these choices ought to be comparedat least with the
line of thinking that Argan was developing at the time in
the introductoryessay of Progettoe destino.51 But Rossi's
researchbetween 1964 and 1966-almost all of which was
still being produced in collaboration-emerged from the
very recognition that finalist reason was in a state of crisis
and was testing a path for the architecturalrationalismof
autonomy, which was also normative. In this area it be-
comes vital to understandwhat Rossi was building as a
series, what kind of theory he had in mind, and whether-
and to what degree-his method allowed distortions.
The construction of a series or of severalseries presupposes
the recognition of the unit, of the numerical indicatorof
that series. The worksof the mid-1960s-from "Esame di
un'area studio di Milano," which pays special attention to
the building typologies producedby privateinterventions,
to "Tipologia, manualisticae architettura"-tended to re-
direct the unit to a limited number of building typologies,
and the relations, the scale of variations,to the consequent
possible urban morphologies. The greatestcontradictions,
and perhapsthe real interestof this attempt, lay in its plac-
ing itself within the context of a cultural itinerarywhere
the separationbetween architectureand society was any-
thing but given: "In the field of urban morphology,we can
understandsocial morphology,economic morphology,
demography,anthropogeography,and some aspectsof so-
cial medicine and of collective psychology,when these
analyses are applied to urban life."52
The measuresthat could be defined by a quantitativein-
quiry into the recurrenceand variationof determinedty-
pologies were renderedmore complex by the relationships
that Rossi tried to establishbetween architecturaltypology
96

and cadastralportion-the other possible element of urban
seriality.This relationship,;conclusive with respectto the
morphogenesisof the type, wavered, for Rossi, between the
assumption of new parametersfor the series and the denial
of the scientific statusof the proceduresused in research-
"urbanmorphology is a kind of empirical discipline whose
field of action is the urban landscape"-in orderto recall
the structuralartifactimmediately after:"We gather this
historical artifactthrough permanence."'3
In reality, the same phenomenologies analyzed (Lombardy
especially, Berlin, and a few cities in the Veneto, in par-
ticular Padua) demonstratedhow the relationsbetween
sociological models and residentialtypologieswere still
conceived very much from a neo-Enlightenment perspec-
tive:
I believe.. thata rapportbetweenthiskindof commitment
and this idealwill and the transformation of the formof the city
is possiblewhen culturereallyhas an autonomousposition,
withinan autonomousdiscipline,anddoesriotwantto disguise
itselfwitha politicalpseudocommitment of concreteness.This is
to saythatI findthatone of the greatestlimitsof Italianurban
planninghas been thatof wantingimmediatelyto givecertain
definitionsof a theoreticaltype,then to deducefromthema
precisesolutionto practicalproblemsin theirimmediateform.4
The relations between sociological models and residential
typologies were resolved for Rossi exclusively in contingent
historical moments: in every other juncture these have dis-
agreed and their recomposition is not the architect'stask.
This recognition, which already reveals a Rossi "architect
of silence" and helps to explain the significance of the dis-
orientation of his formal researchin those years, is also
essential for an understandingof the direction taken by his
researchon some of the more importantproblems of his
theoretical work:for example, building typologiesand the
city composed of parts. And it was the articulationand
defense of these two themes that revealed Rossi'sambigui-
ties, drawing out their hard, sometimes polemical nuclei.
Thus the foundation of the spatial choice upon the series
constructed on recurrencesand typological permanences
led Rossi into an open polemic with the attemptto resolvec
the rapportbetween sociological models and building ty-
pologies, resortingto the metaphor of open work:"These
Olmo
expressions,parallel to the aesthetic expressionsof open
form and coinciding with them, leave one perplexedabout
the meaning of every intervention that necessarilycloses a
problem as a form.""5The constraintsplaced upon the ar-
chitect's work come from a legacy defined by forms and
relations:freedom rediscoveredin a flexibilitythat recom-
poses a posteriorithe rapportbetween aesthetic intention
and use seemed to Rossi as ephemeral as it did hetero-
direct.
But in the polemic, a polemic that also placed in question
the initial referencesof his reflection, Rossi later clarified
his thinking on the type: "The design takes the model into
consideration, but is not founded upon it. A model can
never pretend to have the dignity of form.'"56And he goes
on to add, "But the notion remains ambiguous in architec-
ture where the individual element . . . is preeminent.
Thus while we can say that the garden city is a model, it
seems more problematic to us to say that architectureis a
model. ",
Neither open form nor model, the search for invariants-
still typological and morphological--decides a series whose
architectureand composition are merely small confusions
of meanings. And it is only in this context that one can
speak of theory:"Here we find architectureas a human
thing included between necessity and aesthetic intention,
typology with all its implications, textbooks, and the prob-
lem of plans and models, constituting the foundations and
premises of an analytic study of the city, . . . of a theory of
architecture.""8 This passagefrom analysis to theory consti-
tutes one of the most controversialpoints in the literature
on Aldo Rossi.
One more piece needs to be set in place before confronting
Rossi'sbest-knowntext, whose success has been entirely
independent of his architecturalproduction:the progressive
specification of the scale of analysis and intervention.
The spatialandformalaspectsof the territory can be locatedin
the globalplan only withdifficulty,becausethe actionof totally
remodellingthe territory becomesabstracting and demiurgical.
The spatialandformalaspectsemergemoreclearlyin specific
plansand havetheirown dimensionin the sectoralplans. . .: it
planto propose
is typicalof the sectoralplan and the intervention
physicalmodifications of the field.59
97

It is conceptual experience that leads to the determination
of an "architecturefor partsof the city" through various
and not always homogenous definitions:from the physical
experience of the districtanalyzed in the two accepted
meanings of historical center and developing area (the
latter being studied in its generalityand as a specific
example, above all, in the Siedlungen), to the social expe-
rience of the recognized and recognizablecommunity,
even if this meaning of the locale rapidlybecame foreign
to Rossi's thinking.
But, once again, it was in the polemic with another fash-
ion of the sixties that Aldo Rossi found the most direct
terms of his critical discourse:urban design: "An absurdity
results from the nondefinition of the form of the works
that constitute the city; either we reevaluatethe formal,
single, definitive, concrete artifactin its full autonomy, or
urban design, as often happens, becomes the design for the
layout of streets."60Was he proposingthe formal, single,
definitive, concrete artifactas a possible anthropological
measurement?Rossi would never give a definitive answer
to the importantsuggestion that had once been proposedto
him.
The Architectureof the City
The Architectureof the City can undoubtedlybe read with-
out referencesto analyses of individual architecturalarti-
facts. It is thus a text in the complete sense of the term
and can certainly, by virtue of its conceptual nature, be
used as a theoretical text.61 Like all books that mature over
the years, it is, moreover, easy to reconstructthe progres-
sive refinement of its concepts, their debt to analysis in the
field, and the author's ideological and theoreticalmatura-
tion. Often presentedby Rossi as a necessaryreference-
until A Scientific Autobiography-it reenteredthe game of
the construction of memory; it, too, became the essential
material of that "analogouscity" regardingwhich it is use-
less to follow its author.62Its circulation, however, proves
the most direct instrument for understandingRossi'sfate in
the schools. Assumed as a theoretical text-although there
was often no reflection on its structure-it was for at least
ten years the passkeynot only for the study of composi-
assemblage 5
tional elements, but also for many historicalstudies, espe-
cially within urban planning. And it signaled the birth of
an "ism"that would not alwayshave happy results.
The possible keys for readingthe text cannot stop here
without an essential question being resolved:we must ask
ourselveswhether The Architectureof the City representsa
text of architecturalpoetics, and whether it should be in-
terpretedas such, or whether its self-sufficiencyis also text-
ual autonomy and, consequently, its referentsother texts,
or at least the possibilityin the 1960s of constructinga
theory of architecture.
Aldo Rossi'ssubsequentsuccess as an architect, but espe-
cially as the maitre d'ensembleof an architectonicimagi-
nary, can weaken the question, can make us seek the
answer outside the text; while a readingof it-extolled by
analogies and customs-isolates unexpected problems, the
most importantof which is the conceptualizationof space
and its cultural terms in those years:perhapsnot yet the-
ory, this epistemologicalproblem was certainlythe most
relevanton the road to a theory of architecture.The open-
ing of The Architectureof the City does not follow a pre-
cise rhetoric:the position of problemsproceedshand in
hand with a seemingly aprioristicassumptionof the meth-
ods used to confront them.
The contrastbetweenparticular and universal,betweenindividual
and collective,emergesfromthe cityand fromits construction,
its architecture.
This contrastis one of the principalviewpoints
fromwhichthe city will be studiedin thisbook.It manifestsitself
in differentways:in the relationshipbetweenthe publicandpri-
vatesphere,betweenpublicandprivatebuildings,betweenthe
rationaldesignof urbanarchitecture andthe valuesof locusor
place.63
Rossi thus assumed a rathervast range of problems, which
contrastswith an indication of method that is both meager
and lacking in argumentation:"This method, presentedas
a theory of urban artifacts,stems from the identificationof
the city itself as an artifactand from its division into indi-
vidual buildings and dwelling areas."64But alreadyin the
position of problemsthere are small disorientations.These,
however, concern the essential elements of Rossi'sthinking
on the concept of space:permanencesand monuments.
98

Becausethe citywill be seen comparatively, I lay particular
em-
phasison the importanceof the historicalmethod;but I also
maintainthatwe cannotstudythe city simplyfroma historical
pointof view. Insteadwe mustcarefullyelaboratea city'sendur-
ing elementsor permanences so as to avoidseeingthe historyof
the citysolelyas a functionof them. I believethatpermanent
elementscan even be consideredpathological at times.65
The analogy with disease and its infinite literaryvariations
is all the more suggestivewhen one thinks of his Scientific
Autobiographyor some of its more circulated interpreta-
tions.66But the disorientationhere regardsthe series, the
link that unites knowledge and intervention in architec-
ture. It is a disorientationaccentuated by a reflection on
monumentality, which must necessarilybe placed in rela-
tionship with Rossi's reading in 1958 of Sedlmayr'sDie
Revolution der modernenKunst,67 as well as with the pub-
lication of such texts as Levi-Straus'sLe Cru et le cuit
(which proposed, also outside specialized spheres, the ap-
plication of the approachof structuralanthropologyto the
concept of space).68
I believethatthe importanceof ritualin its collectivenatureand
its essentialcharacteras an elementforpreserving mythconsti-
tutesa keyto understanding the meaningof monumentsand,
moreover,the implicationsof the foundingof the cityand of the
transmission of ideasin an urbancontext. .. For if the ritualis
the permanentand conservingelementof myth,then so too is
the monument,since, in the verymomentthatit testifiesto
myth, it rendersritualformspossible.69
These are essential phrasesof Aldo Rossi's"poetic dis-
course," phrasesthat seem to signal a will to legitimize
through another science, and, especially, through a
changeless time, permanences and endurance, so that they
almost redeem typological choice and the pathological na-
ture of constructedelements. What seems to characterize
the introduction is a real crisis of the conceptualizationof
space, completely left to the autonomy of typological re-
search:to argue this choice it thus appearsalmost neces-
sary to resortto other conceptualizations.
If we glance through Rossi'swork, we find that it offersthe
rhetoric of a real book of theory:the structureof urban
artifacts;primaryelements and the concept of area;the in-
dividuality of urban artifacts; the evolution of urban arti-
Olmo
facts. And the writing that begins with the definition of the
architecturalartifactseems to confirm this impression:
"Such an argument presupposesthat the architecturalarti-
fact is conceived as a structureand that this structureis
revealed and can be recognized in the artifactitself."70
Rossi presentsa relational structure-almost according to
the revision of phenomenological language that was carried
out at the time by, for example, Cargnello and Bonomi
as an artifactthat cannot be furtherreduced:71' "Thus typol-
ogy presents itself as the study of types of elements that
cannot be further reduced, elements of a city as well as of
an architecture."72
Rossi, in articulatinghis idea, recoveredsuggestionsthat
he may have owed more to Renato Barilli than to Argan.73
"Type is thus a constant and manifests itself with a charac-
ter of necessity;but even though it is predetermined,it
reacts dialectically with technique, function, and style, as
well as with both the collective characterand the individ-
ual moment of the architecturalartifact."74 The attemptsof
aesthetic reflection to reify techniques found an echo in
Rossi's criticism on the concept of function: "So con-
ceived, function, physiological in nature, can be likened to
a bodily organ whose function justifies its formation and
development and whose alterationsof function imply an
alterationof form."75A typology reduced to a mere distri-
butive scheme denies the very existence of architecture:
"For if urban artifactspresent nothing but a problem of
organizationand classification, then they have neither
continuity nor individuality. Monuments and architecture
have no reason to exist; they do not 'say'anything to us."76
The "truearchitecturesof silence" are thus for Rossi the
architecturesof a functionalism reduced to mere pragma-
tism, to the echo of Parsonianbehaviorism.77
Rossi's thinking thus leads him to an architecturethat
speaksto one of his difficult nuclei.78 Rossi pauses, fur-
nishes a few signs for us to follow-Jean Tricart'sessays on
social geography,Poete's theory of persistence-and enters
into a minute detail of an urban morphologyassumed as
the relation between types:blocks of houses. Above all, he
insists on the concept of persistence.79
This concept of persistence is fundamental to the theory of Porte;
it also informs the analysis of Pierre Lavedan, one of the most
99

completeanalysesavailableto us, with its interposing
of elements
drawnfromgeographyand the historyof architecture. In Lave-
dan, persistenceis the generatorof the plan.
....o
The return to theoretical reflection again focused on func-
tion: "As this generatoris by nature both real and abstract,
it cannot be catalogued like a function.""'Such a function
would be assumed in its meaning as "complex relationships
between many orders of facts. I reject linear interpretations
of cause and effect because they are belied by reality it-
self."82To explain these complex ties, Rossi did not resort
again to structuralanthropology,but, following Poete's
lead, turned to the architect'sdisciplinaryinstruments:
streets, the plan, and, in an unreasonedshort circuit,
monuments: "These persistencesare revealedthrough
monuments, the physical signs of the past, as well as
through the persistence of a city's basic layout and plans.'"83
His synchronic vision of the urban structurecontains more
stratificationsthan integrations:"The form of the city is
always the form of a particulartime of the city; but there
are many times in the formation of the city, . .."84
The skeleton of Rossi's theoretical discourse seems con-
structedat this point. The second chapter of The Architec-
ture of the City constitutes its first experiment. Almost
didactically, he first defines the study area:"Such a mini-
mum urban context constitutes the study area, by which
we mean a portion of the urban area that can be defined
or described by comparison to other largerelements of the
overall urban area, for example, the street system."85 This
first negative definition is followed by others, where the
definition of the characteristicsof physical and social ho-
mogeneity take shape through a discussion of the theses of
Ernest Burgess, Reinhard Baumeister,and Kevin Lynch.
But it was precisely in this definition of the characteristics
of homogeneity that define a study area that Rossi placed
one more piece of his reflection on the rapportbetween
the social and the physical structureof the city: "The origi-
nal nucleus, enclosed within the walls, extends itself ac-
cording to its own specific nature;and to this formal
individuation correspondsa political individuation."186
Monuments are the focus, and the cases cited are Nimes,
Arles, and Lucca. They constitute a value that presents
assemblage 5
itself more stronglythan the environment "andthus than
memory.
The monumenthaspermanencebecauseit alreadyexistsin a
dialecticalpositionwithinurbandevelopment; it is understood
in
the cityas somethingthatariseseitherat a singlepointin the city
or in an areaof the city. In the firstcase, thatof primaryele-
ments,the ultimateformis mostimportant; in the second,that
of the residential
district,the natureof the landseemsto be most
important.87
The reversalbetween form and function appearscomplete,
as does the reversalbetween permanence and memory.
Morphologicalinquiries and possible avenues of research
of a historicaland linguistic nature have been identified for
the explorationof these characteristics.In this sense the
problem opens onto the concept of place and dimension.88
Once again Rossi, on the thresholdof resolvinghis own
discourse in a declarationof poetics-perhaps essential to
an understandingof worksas distant as the Cemetery of
Modena or the City Hall of Muggia-returns to abstraction
and to conceptualization:"The locus, so conceived, em-
phasizes the conditions and qualities within undifferen-
tiated space which are necessaryfor understandingan
urban artifact."'89
And here Rossi's interest in reflection again appearscentral
for the very reason that at the center of critical discourse
stands the rapportbetween relationalstructureand sym-
bolic technics: "I have asked many times in the course of
this book, wheredoes the singularityof an urban artifact
begin? In its form, its function, its memory, or in some-
thing else again? We can now answerthat it begins in the
event and in the sign that has markedthe event.'"90A sign
that fixes an event: the referenceis, then, to what is other
than the self; it seems almost to deny the autonomy of
architecture.
The relationship in architecture
betweenthe collectiveurbanarti-
factand the individualis uniquewithrespectto the othertech-
nics andarts.In fact,architecture presentsitselfas a vastcultural
movement:it is discussedandcriticizedwell beyondthe narrow
circleof its specialists;
it needsto be realized,to becomepartof
the city, to become'thecity.'In a certainsense,thereis no such
thingas buildingsthatarepolitically'opposed,'. . .91
100

And he adds,
Architecture, alongwith composition,is bothcontingentupon
and determinative of the constitutionof urbanartifacts,especially
at thosetimeswhen it is capableof synthesizingthe wholecivil
andpoliticalscopeof an epoch, when it is highlyrational,com-
prehensive,and transmissible-inotherwords,whenit can be
seen as a style.92
Was this, for Rossi, a returnto a desire for art, to Riegl, to
an aesthetics of content? A resolution of the central prob-
lem of the rapportbetween the social structureand the
physical structureof the city, with a returnto the theory of
mirroring?
Rossi developed his reflection around the concepts of tech-
nics and memory. "I am thereforedisposed to believe that
the principal moment of an architecturalartifactis in its
technical and artistic formation, that is, in the autonomous
principles according to which it is founded and transmit-
ted."93He contrastedself-regulatingtechnics with a defini-
tion of memory that providesone of the more interesting
citations of the book. Expanding Halbwachs'sthesis, "One
can say that the city itself is the collective memory of its
people, and like memory it is associatedwith objects and
places. The city is the locus of the collective memory."94A
memory that becomes permanence and that forms the city:
Thus the union betweenthe pastand the futureexistsin the very
ideaof the city thatit flowsthroughin the samewaythatmem-
oryflowsthroughthe life of a person;andalways,in orderto be
realized,this ideamustnot only shapebutbe shapedby reality.
This shapingis a permanentaspectof a city'suniqueartifacts,
monuments,and the ideawe haveof it. It alsoexplainswhy in
antiquitythe foundingof a citybecamepartof the city'smythol-
ogy.95
It is undoubtedly in his writing on the conceptualizationof
memory that Rossi has revealed himself "more a poet than
a theoretician."Precisely when the epistemologicaleffort
becomes more complex (Halbwachsnecessarilyevokes
Bergson, just as Pirenne implies Febvre);96when the defi-
nition of permanences and typology must be measuredas
an irreducibleunity with the formation of collective mem-
ory; when the issue becomes the connecting of memory,
which shapes and is shaped by reality, to a self-regulating
Olmo
technics, Rossi's discourse once again slides over the mon-
ument, or better yet, over monumentality. This monu-
mentality is secular in its referents,but nonetheless recalls
the discussions on orders(Francesco Milizia is one of the
most frequent citations in the text). This monumentality
does not express itself by following norms, but is born of
function that has become form and of form that becomes
function. These theoretical suggestions, which certainly
also came out of Rossi's readingsin the Enlightenment,
would eventually culminate in the introductionto his
translationof Boullke.97
The monumental reduction of memory and permanence
neverthelessconstitutes to some degree the most opaque
passageof Rossi's reflection, the moment, perhaps, in
which his architectonic imaginaryseems to explain more
than theoretical arguments. We ought to keep in mind,
however, that in those years theoretical reflection on "lived
time" had only just begun to spread:the Italian translation
of KarlJaspers'sAllgemeinePsychopathologieappearedin
1964, while the translationof Martin Heidegger'sHolzwege
appearedin 1968.98And the problem of "sense and non-
sense," of the value accorded monumentality, remains the
unresolved knot even in the book's final chapter, which
goes so far as to introduce the dimension of time as the
evolution of urban artifacts.99
Rossi's reconstructionof the ties between industrialization
and urbanizationowes much to Bahrdtand Pirenne-in-
dustrializationseen as the ruptureof the domestic econ-
omy, as the destructionof the neighborhood relationship,
as the separationbetween production and administration,
and as the prevalence of means of individual transporta-
tion.100 But, for Rossi, industrializationdid not constitute
only an opportunityto annul distances and time, but per-
haps also the time of diasporato be redeemed. And his
attitude is almost detached when it comes to urban reve-
nue: "In short, the breakingup of the land on the one
hand led to the degeneration of the city, but on the other,
it actually promoted its development."'l0This is especially
strikingwhen compared with the debate of those years.102
Rossi did not espouse the general crusade against the fail-
ures of industrialization.What he contested was essentially
that urban diffusion-the metropolisesand megalopo-
101
 assemblage 5

2. Rossi, Venetian Monuments,

1972

102

lises-can, by itself, constitute the urban artifact:"What
we want to contest, however, is that this 'new scale' can
change the substance of an urban artifact."'13Time and
the depth of events seem almost fundamental elements of
Rossi's thinking during that period. At the same time, he
had arrivedat a conviction in the autonomy of the urban
artifact, which led him to be wary of the developments of
the debate, opened in Italy mainly by the urban planners,
and thus to suspect the dissolution of symbolic technics in
social analysis as well. 104
Yet Rossi's antihistoricismwill surpriseonly those who
read The Architectureof the City stoppingat the most di-
rect citations-though Halbwachsalone should give one
pause-or, even more, those who read it as an instrument
to resolve architecturein urban planning, assimilatingit
perhapsto contemporarytexts such as Il territoriodell'
architettura.10sIn fact, his antihistoricismturned out to be
a condition for the writing of a theoretical text. But too
many logical passagesleft open, too many suggestionsabout
the suitable task of the architect, within the text, led Rossi
to open ratherthan close the discourse on architecture.
We would, however, be avoiding the issue if we presented
this book as a text of poetics. Beyond the unresolved epis-
temological problems, unresolved even in the contempo-
raryaesthetic or theoretical debate, The Architectureof the
City may lack the tension between conceptualizationand
the formulation of norms that characterizestheoretical
texts. But we are justified in asking whether the progressive
criticism of ideology, the development of negative dialec-
tics, and the discussion of both the standardand the social
philosophies that legitimate it did not end, in those years,
by excluding a normative faith, suspending the analytical
moment in a temporal dimension, without events.106
And it is perhapsthis analytical dimension without norms,
and thus without necessity, this ahistoricaldimension-
which nonetheless discusses permanences and memories
while recoveringtime through endurance and not in
events-that explains the success of this text.
The text, in fact, presentsitself as transparent:in reality it
does not immediately unveil the problems it poses. It
Olmo
could be read in an almost consoling fashion, especially by
those who at the time were confused by the dissolution of
all techniques and instrumentsin the social arena and who
did not see how they might recover their own contingency
without adhering to a manifesto. But The Architectureof
the City, because of this very suspension of analysis above
a time without events, was bound to disorient furtherpre-
cisely those who used it as a consolation, like the striking
of the bell tower of Combray.
The Heritage of the Enlightenment and Rational
Architecture
The period from 1966 to 1970 was for Aldo Rossi one of
intense critical production, during which a number of his
most significant texts were published, texts that he would
constantly return to until 1980. It was also during this pe-
riod that intereststhat had taken root some time before
came to maturity.This method of proceeding, usual for
Rossi, imposed upon the critic close work on the texts and
did not legitimate the isolation of an essay, even if re-
quested by the author, as with Rossi'stranslationof and
introduction to Etienne-Louis Boull6e's Architecture:Essai
sur l'art, published in 1967.107 Such was the case with
Rossi's readingsin the Enlightenment, begun in 1958,
with the review of Kaufmann'stext, and continued until
1972, when he published"L'architettura dell'illuminismo."s08
But Rossi did not approachBoull6e via Kaufmann or Witt-
kower. His interestwas in the theoretical Boullke, and this
is a fact so close to The Architectureof the City that it
certainly cannot be omitted.
The systemimmediatelyrejectsfunctionalism; andwe arespeak-
ing of one of the few treatmentsof architecture thatI knowof,
or of the only one, thatdenieseveryfoundationof certaintyin
functionalismas theoryand in the profession,whenceBoull6e's
preciseand explicitoppositionto all of treatisewritingsinceVi-
truvius.109
This conceptualization of space does not, however, trans-
late into a derivation of architecturalpractice from princi-
ples: "Certainlyconventional rationalismpretendsto derive
the entire process of architecturefrom principles, while the
rationalismexalted by Boullke or others presupposesa con-
fidence (or faith) that illuminates the system, but is outside
103

of it."110Rossi himself thus ends up by presentinga Le-
doux who is "more of an architect"than Boull6e because
"more practical,"with a motivation that certainlycannot
fail to appear paradoxicalto anyone acquaintedwith the
literatureon Rossi: "In a certain sense . . . also regarding
Ledoux's architecturecompared to Boull6e's there is more
taste and more ability and something that makes it lend
itself more readily to imitation.""11'
Rossi's introduction to Boull6e's essay completely redefined
the terms of the inquiry into the rational in architecture
and the possible connections between theory and design:
"Boull6e . . . presentsthe question of characterand theme
as decisive; that is to say, he presentsa choice that pre-
cedes the architecturalproject, and in doing so he neces-
sarily presents in first place the typological aspect of
architecture.112 Such a choice, coming before the project,
allows the project its own normative autonomy, the defini-
tion of its own autonomous logic: "Now I think that the
authentic problem of architectureis the constructionof
this logical system, valid in itself, independentlyof the var-
iance between scientific conception and art.'"113It is diffi-
cult, in considering this essay, not to recall the polemic on
scientific rationalitythat took place between KarlPopper
and Theodor Adorno."114One also gets the impressionthat
Rossi almost cites Boull6e as he introduceshim, "Even
this architecturelies within rationalismand rationalexperi-
ences, except that it wishes to overcome them by starting
from its own logical base.""'
Such a choice enables one to take the criticism of func-
tionalism to extreme lengths, "in the consequent rejection
of the functionalist position of architectureand in the con-
sequent refusal to identify the thinking of architecturewith
the constructed work, the architecturalprojectwith the ur-
ban artifact."116And this reevaluationof architecturalwork
as scientific work, capable of giving itself not only rules but
also procedures, leads "classicalarchitecture,born of an a
priori idea, completely enclosed in geometricalthought,"
to reproposeitself as an almost naturalartifact."'117 The exis-
tence of choices that precede the project, the need to con-
struct a logical system of architecture,which, once this has
been accepted a priori, gives itself its own scientific struc-
ture, and the refusal to identify the thinking of architecture
assemblage 5
with the constructedwork are thus the essential elements
of an architecturalrationalismthat accepts its own nature
of symbolic technics.
It is certainly not hard to understandhow the introduction
to Boull6e's essay eventually became an almost obligatory
referencefor Rossi, transformingwhat had been a textual
interpretationinto the declarationof a poetics. But the
contextualityof the writingsof that period indicates a less
linear cultural itinerary,and this also applies to Rossi's
readingsin the Enlightenment.
In the essay "L'architetturadell'illuminismo,"writtenfor
the exhibition BernardoVittone e la disputa fra classicismo
e barocconel settecento, the main focus would also be on
caratterior "characteristics." "Eighteenth-centuryrational-
ity considers naturalartifactsand monuments, especially
the historical nucleus, as stable forms of referencearound
which a rationalplan is articulated,because rationalityis
tied to the concept of history.""11And Rossi underlines in
this essay the experimentalityof the repertoriesof the ar-
chitectural experience during the Enlightenment, as well
as the relationshipbetween experimentationand historic-
ity.119Maybe, then, the contextual fact in the introduction
to Boullke that we need to signal is the progressionof Ros-
si's reflection on the theoretical moment in architecture:
"to believe in the possibilityof a teaching that is entirely
contained in a system and where the world of forms is as
logical and defined as every other aspect of the architec-
tural artifact,and to consider this a meaning of architec-
ture as transmittableas every other form of thinking."120
This world of forms is, however, again elaboratedin the
field, and measuresdaily its own capacityto "explain"the
long duration of permanencesas well as the relationships
between those structuresand the spatialand temporal
junctures in which they are studied. In "Che fare delle
vecchie citta?"of 1968, Rossi wrote, "The urban dynamic
destroysthe old manufacturedproduct;habits, customs, so-
cial groups, functions, and interestschange unrelentingly
the use and form of the old cities."1l21But the characteristic
elements, the monuments, remain fixed in the urban dy-
namic, in the junctures:"We must preservethe ancient
monuments and construct new ones, construct the city
104

around fixed points, around grand collective elements
around which residence is placed."'22
The urban analysis seems to return, for Rossi as well, to a
discussion of hierarchies:'2 "Those fixed points are still
another way of understandinghistoryand the rational
motives of what we do, the foundations of the city and of
architecture.'124 Is monumentality, from a quality that
forms and is formed by society-"constructive points where
the collective representationof the city is stronger"-trying
to representitself as a quality that makes a construction
recognizable by itself?125 Rossi'sanswersare certainly not
clear.
Thus the theme of historical centers, which at the time
was politically as well as culturally charged, demonstrated
a choice "within"the problem, and not an adherence to a
thesis: "What then are we to do with the old city? Are we
to centralize the process of destroyingthe surrounding,pic-
turesque parts, in such a way as to make the monuments
participatedirectly in the construction of the modern
city, or, when possible, to maintain them totally as mu-
seums?"'26 This would be a truly singular alternative-
especially for those urban sciences, such as the Italian,
mainly interestedin recoveringa technical and economic
operativecapacity and an ability to foresee change27--an
alternativethat posed one answer to the disorientationof
the very concept of the historicityof an urban area. In "I
caratteriurbani delle citti venete" of 1970, Rossi wrote,
"Considerthe question of historical centers:I believe that
the most serious way of working upon the cities, or of un-
derstandingthem, which is not that different, is to posit a
mediation between the real city and the analogous city.
That the latter should in other words be the authentic pro-
jection of the city. "128 This continual shifting of the debate
might seem to be an intellectual game. And the symbolist
form of irony undoubtedly belongs to Rossi'slanguage. But
the disorientationactually occurredwhen quantitativere-
search was expanded to case studies that were decisive for
Rossi's experience, when his discourse on tendenza re-
gained strength.
In texts for exhibitions like the one held in Castelfranco
Veneto on the Enlightenment and architecturein the
Olmo
eighteenth-centuryVeneto, and, especially, in research
presented in anthologies, such as "I caratteriurbani delle
cittaivenete," Rossi proposeda new critical discourse on
the construction of series and on its interpretation.129 And
the modes of interpretationonce again demonstrateRossi's
attention toward social institutions, ratherthan society:
"The regulationsor statutesof the Gothic city thus form a
group of norms that begin with the condition of use of the
city (walls, plots, streets), to arriveat an architectonic char-
acterization of the type.'3"0As for the juncture of the
French Revolution, so in the Gothic city "thereseems to
be no contradictionbetween norm and form, . . . while in
the bourgeois city they are completely separate."'3'
Once that contiguity had been broken, all that remained
for modern architecturewas to intervene upon the fixed
points of the city and reject the agreement between form
and function, which could be recoveredin an analogical,
and not historical, dimension of development:
The factis thatthe ideaof the monumentas the fixationof the
singleinstitutionor of the hierarchyof urbanvaluesreallyex-
pressesthe refusalto act uponthe formof the city as thoughthis
werea schemeor an ideathatmightbe actuatedor modified
throughthe generaldesign.The monumentacceptsa preciseoc-
casionwithoutputtingthe entireformof the cityat stake.132
The mere facilitation of a discussion of the breakbetween
norm and function and of the impossibilityof thinking
about urban intervention in terms of general design, occur-
ring at a time when a tired functionalism was being revital-
ized by a "static"model of planification,'33 necessarily
signified the opening of a cultural debate;a price would
have to be paid for the schematization, even of one's own
positions, that the debate implied. And Rossi certainly saw
decision making in terms of conflict. "The povertyof con-
temporaryarchitecturein fact lies, even before its results,
in the povertyof contents, in the lack of precise tenden-
cies, in the paralysisof the theoretical assumptionsawk-
wardlydraggedalong by the modern movement."'134 It was
an idea that Rossi shared with an architect who certainly
differed from him in many ways, Le Corbusier.'135And
tendenza was born out of the need to disruptan uncom-
fortablesituation: its need to recognize itself signaled to
some degree its defeat, and sometimes also its success.136
105

The formation of tendenza, in Aldo Rossi'swriting, does
not, however, refer exclusively to the historicalavant-
gardes:"While the architecturaltreatises,from Milizia to
Durand, even in their profound diversity,referthe de-
scribed elements to a unity of meaning in architectureand
operate within a tendency, the positivistmanuals present
themselves as a neutral descriptionof the existing
world.""'7The extolled "rupture"is again that realized
through the French Revolution. And the text that is both
the clearest and the least dialectical in this area is Rossi's
introduction to the catalogue of the CastelfrancoVeneto
exhibition, "L'architetturadella ragione come architettura
di tendenza."
Without entering into a discussion of tendenza, which re-
mains to be completed, I only wish to emphasize a need:
in reading Rossi's texts, we ought to distinguish the years
1968-70 from those that followed, a tendenza that was
open to discussion and debate from a tendenza that felt the
need for self-recognition.138 Between CastelfrancoVeneto
and the XV Triennale three years passed;they would be
important ones, and not simply for the events of the Fac-
ulty of Architectureat Milan.
Aldo Rossi between Poetics and Historiography
Rossi "introduced"two of his designs in Lotus 7 (1970),
San Rocco and the Gallarateseproject. His text, "Due pro-
getti," is importantbecause it demonstrateshow Rossi
translatestexts that are almost technical-from The Archi-
tecture of the City to "L'architetturadella ragione come
architetturadi tendenza"-into fragmentsof poetics. This
translationreveals a few rigiditiesand, for this very reason,
may help us to rethink Aldo Rossi the theoretician:"The
task today is that of finding a concrete alternativeto the
professionalistand commerical architecturethat surrounds
us; such an alternativemust be formulatedin authentic
architectonic terms.'"139
The social translationof functionalism is thus professional-
ist and commercial architecture, the discriminantthat in-
troduces typological choice:
The structuralvalueof typologyand thusits preeminenceover
architecture fact;it concernsin the firstin-
is a constitutional
assemblage 5
stancechoice andtendency.It is probablethatthereexistsmore
thanone alternative typeor the balconytypein
to the courtyard
the typologyof humanresidence.I am referring to thatof the
isolatedhouse, smallpalazzo,or cottage.140
Indifferencetowardtypological choice is for Rossi the first
explanation of urbanisticchaos: "Typologicalindifference
in architecturesignifies disorder:I am not referringto ex-
pressionisticdisorderbut to the disorderof non-architec-
ture, of non-choice."I141Within the theoreticaldiscussion
developed by Rossi, the passageto the introductionof the
two projectsof San Rocco and Gallaratesenecessarily
shows traces of such a significant reduction of meaning.
Thus the argumentsunderpinningthe choices taken ended
up by presentinga design for those buildings that was too
"deductive,"that contrastedtoo stronglywith the disorien-
tations that enrich Rossi'swritings:
One shouldthusrecognizethis rapportwiththe archaeological
sectionsin theseresidential
projects,bothin theirimmediate
form,as wasthe casein the projectfor the XIIITriennale,and
in theirreductionto a mentalschemeof classicaldesign-the
networkof PaviaratherthanPompeii-in the designof San
Rocco.It is, however,necessaryto saythatthesereferencesare
alsoto the historyof architecture
or, betteryet, to the thingsof
architecture.
142
He then adds, "We do not believe, then, in the social
function of collective systems or in their authentic capacity
to redeem the depressedareas of the territory;we believe,
instead, in their necessaryapplicationas meshes to the
continuous availabilityof the territoryitself."143
Certainly, the transferenceof the analysis into proposalis
importantto an understandingof the increasinglyrigid
quality of the argumentation.144But the text of poetics that
Rossi himself cites, Progettoper un edificiodi abitazione
nel quartiereGallaratese, is not discussedby the author.145
It was tendenza that led to an intellectual attitude-the
relation between writing, design, and building-that, even
as it was being continually reused and enriched by neo-
romantic nostalgia, by the very components of tenden-
za,146 representedthe negation of the most authentic parts
of Rossi's reflection on architecture.Similarly, it was
tendenza that proposedan obviously polemical field of
106

discussion, which canceled out the need to measure the
interpretationagainst a reading of texts and projectsor to
suggest a generalization of a choice of field, often insuffi-
ciently argued. And, for Rossi, this condition of "architec-
ture lived in public" did not disappearwith the subsidence
of tendenza.
Rossi, or more exactly the image of Rossi, remained the
prisoner of a marketthat in those years achieved auton-
omy: international journalism, which is founded on the
invention/reinventionof interpretivecategories.'147 The
strangestfact is that this process coincided with the publi-
cation of what remains, although dated, some of the few
interpretationsof Rossi's architectureto have emerged from
the analysis of architecturalworks.'148But Enzo Bonfanti's
article "Elementi e costruzione"began another process:
the exchange between poetics and interpretation,between
self-representationand argumentation.149 Bonfanti'sreading
of Rossi's architecturalworksends up by replacing Rossi's
text; it agrees not to compare text and design, design and
building, while the interpretation'scorrespondenceto the
architecturalwork and its own historiographicalrelevance
remain in the background.Thus some spoke of pieces and
parts, of succession and superimposition,as though there
were still a Rossian discourse in 1979 and in 1980, while
Tafuri would signal, in The Sphereand the Labyrinth, the
historiographicalrelevance of Bonfanti'sinterpretation.150
Bonfanti, on the other hand, to some degree still legiti-
mated the artistwho is a tutto tondo:
The entirecyclethatgoesfromthe elementsto theiradditionand
turnsto separability, the attemptto maintainfaithin
represents
the assumptionof a theoryof designtiedto form,in recurring
elements,in aspectsendowedwitha specifictechnicalor distrib-
utivelogic and almosta characterof necessity(likethe cell),
whichcan be carriedout likea transmittableprocedure,both
logicaland formal,didacticallyexhaustiveandsystematic.m5
But what, in Bonfanti, is still researchin contact with
worksand signs, what is strong historiographicalauton-
omy-it is interestingto compare, for example, Rossi's
statements on irreducibleunity with Bonfanti'sreadingin
"pieces and not only becomes polemical on
parts"--rapidly
tendenza, but flattens out interpretationin the polemic.
Such was the case for the polemic initiated by Melograni
Olmo
in Rinascita and, especially, for that of the International
Section of Architectureat the XV Triennale.152
The polemic on the XV Triennale managed to affect the
isolation of critical categoriesfrom contextualizationand,
strangelyenough, also indicated, when it was perceived,
the incomprehension of the section's great weakness:self-
"
representation.15 The discussion centered on the category
of the artist'sautonomy, on the connections that should
exist between form and society, between art and ideology.
That the debate remained on an abstractlevel turned this
polemic into an exemplarymodel of the journalisticpro-
duction and promotion of all the participants.It was in-
conceivable that anyone would accept the rules of a game
in which whoever thought of issuing prohibitions-perhaps
by quoting Piacentini or De Finetti-was in realitypartici-
pating in the murder of a taboo, which has since become
defunct.14
For Rossi, the translationon the level of memories of his
deep-rootedantihistoricism, the definitive abandon of a
discussion of characteristicsfor the surrealistdisorientation
of his citations,'5 the decision to give up explaining "what
precedes the project,"the characterizationof his writings
almost exclusively in terms of poetics were in reality as-
pects of a process that was accomplished through a long
series of articles, almost all of them brief and elliptical,
some of them hard to find, and that began even before the
XV Triennale.
The first texts include "L'azzurrodel cielo," "Poesiacontro
retorica"and "Due progetti."'156It is, however, in his return
to themes alreadytreated in The Architectureof the City
that we can most easily see, on a textual level, the shift of
meaning. In "L'Habitationet la ville" of 1974 Rossi wrote,
"The clarity of typology enables us to adopt modern con-
struction techniques; typology being above all an architec-
tural language, it does not take the place of technical and
social questions, but enables us to have a very clear expla-
nation of them."'17And in an article for Controspazioof
the same year,
The rapportbetweenarchitecture and the citydoesnot, in the
end, lie in the projectionof a rapportbetweendifferentqualities
and quantities,and it is alwaysmechanicalto lookforthis rap-
portmainlyin externalartifacts.It mustreproduceitselfwithin
107

the projectin orderto providea solution,withinthe limitsof the
developedtheme, to moregeneralquestions. 15
The progressivedisappearanceof referencesto social and
technical questions that can also be found in the repetition
of writing'59and the analysis of architectureas a formal
language were only initial shifts of meaning. The task-
every time that it imposes upon the critic the fragmenta-
tion, the fortuity, the elliptical nature, and the lack of
citations that characterizealmost all of Rossi'stexts of the
1970s-is risky.To decontextualize the text totally, to ex-
hibit Rossi's various writingsas though they were a unique
discourse, would, in fact, be not only risky,but counter-
productive. The fragmentation,the fortuity,the speaking
almost exclusively of one project or work are alreadyan
importantindication, especially in an itinerary,like Ros-
si's, that is almost never fortuitous.
Rossi's choice of a fragmentof poetics to confront increas-
ingly pressing criticism perhaps representsa way of pre-
venting the mirrorfrom reflecting back an image a tutto
tondo, by accepting only the dialogue upon the contin-
gent. 160 To decide the meaning, a meaning, may be the
concern of others, when illustratingthe meaning of a proj-
ect can indicate a return to journalism.
To follow Rossi through this terrainwould really be to
feed a vicious cycle, even without the suggestionsthat
Hirschman grantsthis rhetoricalfigure.161 As fragmentsof
poetics, these texts have cast out themes, and it is per-
haps useful to underline their recurrencein his writings:
the iteration and definition of objects (Trieste, Fagnano
Olona),162 memory and affection (Trieste, Chieti),163 urban
topographyand monuments (Rome, Trieste).164 Just as it
may be useful to underline the first instances of writings
that would be repeatedin the 1980s: the referenceto the
constructional detail (Trieste)165or literarycitation (Saba
for Trieste, De Amicis for Rome).166
Although a much more detailed discussion is called for
than is possible here, one fact ought to be emphasized:the
loss of the autonomy and centralityof the text in Aldo
Rossi's work, even for the one that had the greatestsuc-
cess, "La cittaianaloga."'67 This shift signals the exhaustion
of a few, not simply conceptual, instruments-research-
assemblage 5
interventionas well as tendenza. But it also points to the
maturationof a new terrain, architecturalpoetics.
A Scientific Autobiography
Like The Architectureof the City, Rossi'sScientific Auto-
biographyof 1981 can be approachedfrom a varietyof
perspectives.The rhetoricalfiction of the progressiveinter-
views constitutes the most evident trail for the critic.168But
what may be most worrisome, and what even the most
detailed readingdoes not entirely reveal, is the text's com-
plete self-sufficiency,the possibilityof its permanence out-
side of a comparisonwith the cited worksand analyzed
projects, as well as with the polemics of the period.
Rossi seems to have wanted to preventthis observation
from the very beginning: "I began these notes about ten
years ago, and I am trying to conclude them now so that
they do not turn into memories."169 But the vacillation be-
tween poetics and memory, between argumentand narra-
tion, aided by an uneven writing halfwaybetween essay
and narrative,remains a source of the text's major in-
terpretiveambiguities.
The circumstances-Rossi's experiencesin North Amer-
ica--certainly emphasize these facts and may have favored
an evocative and fragmentarykind of writing. More
than any other text by Rossi, A Scientific Autobiography
abounds in interruptedpaths, in images reflectedin a mir-
ror continually reconstructedthrough writing. To single
out one of these images or to underline one of the cita-
tions would be equivalent to solidifyingthat disorientation
of memory that is perhapsthe newest and most disturbing
element in the text. This would be true even when, as in
the case of illness and death, the image returns.The
referencesthat deter Krisand Ehrenzweigare, however,
disorienting:death and the conservationof energy, the ap-
parecchiodella morte, destructionthat expressesthe form,
illness and the presence of things.170 We can only follow
Rossi, distrustingthe citations within the text and accept-
ing a procedurethat moves forwardby means of frag-
ments.171
The contrastbetween the introductionsto projects, written
graduallyover the years, and the reconstructedmemory of
108
 Olmo

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i-i 'PSI

_.:

II

.
:-
.

.'3

3. Rossi, Constructions
in the Hills, 1983

109

the scientific autobiographyrobs the text of any direct her-
meneutical value, suggestingan autonomous, if not self-
sufficient, text. The first pages of A Scientific Autobiogra-
phy contain many referencesto projectsand objects, to
arguments in favor of a poetics that has no place in time,
or only a surreptitiousone. The Sacri Monti, Sant'Andrea
at Mantua, archaeological finds ("claymaterial, . . . tools,
. . . fragmentswhere the ancient stone is confounded with
bone and where the structureof the skeleton is lost in that
bone"), coffee pots, San Carlone at Arona, Filarete'scol-
umn in Venice,172 these are cardsfallen upon an appar-
ently disorderedtable, along with Balzac'sLife of Henri
Brulard, Alfonso dei Liguori'sApparecchioalla morte, and
EdwardHopper'spaintings.'71
And the fragmentsof poetics seem equally incidental:
"Nonetheless, to understandor explain my architecture,I
must again run through things and impressions, must
again describe them, or find a way to do so.'"174 "Ever
since my first projects, where I was interestedin purism, I
have loved contaminations, slight changes, self-commen-
taries, and repetitions.""'7 "Perhapsthis alone was what in-
terested me in architecture:I knew that architecturewas
made possible by the confrontationof a precise form with
time and the elements, a confrontationwhich lasted until
the form was destroyedin the process of this combat."176
"Similarly, architecturebecomes the vehicle for an event
we desire, whether or not it actually occurs;and in our
desiring it, the event becomes something 'progressive'in
the Hegelian sense."177
It is not history that reconnects objects and poetics. The
only form of legitimated consequentialityseems to be
repetition.
Finally,frommy childhoodeducationI cannotforgetthe Sacri
Montiof S. thatI mentionedbeforeandthe otherSacriMonti
thatwe visitedat the shoresof lakes.Undoubtedly, theygaveme
my firstcontactwith figurativeart,and I was,as I now am,
attractedby stasisand naturalness,
by the classicismof architec-
tureand by the naturalismof peopleand objects. .. WhenI
sawthe completeworkof EdwardHopperin New York,I real-
ized all this aboutmy architecture:
paintingslikeChairCaror
FourLaneRoadtookme backto the stasisof thosetimelessmir-
assemblage 5
acles, to tables set for eternity, drinksnever consumed, things
which are only themselves.178
The memory that Rossi presents us seems to have no hier-
archies and to be saturated with references. To open the
possibility of combinations: why not purism and ritual, or
the fagade of Las Pelayas and paleontology?
The only theme that returns, but that is quickly destruc-
tured, is the beauty of the skeleton, of the outline.
I am convinced, however, that architectureas totality, as a com-
prehensive project, as an overall framework,is certainlymore im-
portantand, in the final analysis, more beautiful. But it happens
that historicalobstacles-in every way parallelto psychological
blocks or symptoms-hinder every reconstruction.As a result, I
believe that there can be no true compensation, and that maybe
the only thing possible is the addition that is somewhere between
logic and biography."79
The introduction of his own projects-Modena, Chieti,
Trieste-does not signal a change in his writing. Rossi
does not explain Trieste: he juxtaposes the photographs of
Heinrich Helfenstein, the gardens of Seville and Ferrara,
the Hotel Due Palme on Lake M. 180 The first rupture in
the text is the automobile accident between Belgrade and
Zagreb in 1971. It is both a breaking and a recomposition
of the levels of Rossi's discourse.
Perhapsas a result of this incident, the projectfor the cemetery at
Modena was born in the little hospital of SlawonskiBrod, and
simultaneously, my youth reached its end. I lay in a small,
ground-floorroom near a window through which I looked at the
sky and a little garden. Lying nearly immobile, I thought of the
past, but sometimes I did not think: I merely gazed at the trees
and the sky. This presence of things and of my separationfrom
things-bound up also with the painful awarenessof my own
bones-brought me back to my childhood. During the following
summer, in my study for the project, perhapsonly this image and
the pain in my bones remained with me: I saw the skeletalstruc-
ture of the body as a series of fracturesto be reassembled.In
SlawonskiBrod, I had identified death with the morphologyof
the skeleton and the alterationsit could undergo."'1
But, immediately after, the superimpositions, the sedimen-
tations of objects, and the identification of diverse materi-
als begins again.
110

Yetthis firstanalysisof the project,alreadya descentinto the
Lombardworld, was to my discomfortaccompanied by literary
and visual suggestions of certain leftist imitatorsof the writer
AlessandroManzoni-the romanticism of the excluded,of an-
cient courtsand Milanesebuildings,publicplaces,exaggerated
andalmostinfamousinstitutions,as in the Milanof Valera.The
paintingsof AngeloMorbelli,likeII Nataledei remastiandPio
AlbergoTrivulzio,hadalwaysimpressedme.182
Rossi thus seems to remove himself from the legitimation
that had recently been offered to a metaphysicalreadingof
his design activity.
Rossi's surprisewith regardto criticism of the cemetery of
Modena as "a sort of neo-Enlightenment experiment"pre-
vents, to some degree, the readerfrom being surprisedby
the explosion of references:the Pio AlbergoTrivulzio, the
desertedhouses on the embankment of the Po, the broken
cups, the iron beds, and finally the "cemeteryof pleasure"
in Lisbon."'83
The second rupturein the text is antedatedand concerns
the writing on the architectureof the city, but it has the
brevityof a necessary reference. And this detachment may
signal, more than any citation, a diversityno longer ac-
companied by so many small shifts of meaning. The archi-
tecture of the city has become, for Rossi, materialfor his
analogous architecture.
In TheArchitecture of theCity, I spokeof the citiesof Andalusia;
buildingslike the Alhambra in Granadaand the Mezquitain
C6rdobawerethe paradigms of an architecturewhichis trans-
formedovertime, of an architecture acquaintedwith immense
spaces and delicate solutions and constituting the city. I now real-
ize that these impressionsare reflected in my architecture.The
analogicallinks,the associationsbetweenthingsand situations,
becamemultiplied. . 184
More than the reconstructionof a conceptual thought, A
Scientific Autobiographyseems to exhibit the geographyof
an Enlightenment voyage, without utopia: Seville and the
Alhambra, Lisbon and the "cemeteryof pleasure,"Galves-
ton and the houses on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.
This geographyis made of rebellious scenarios-"I am not
familiar with Holy Week in Seville, but in churches and
museums I have been the statues and carts, the Virgins
and the Christs, and these things too seem like the archi-
Olmo
tectonic instrumentsof an action that is prearranged,yes,
but unforeseeable."-scenarios that contrasttheir endur-
ance with the brief time of memory, scenariosthat also
return nature.'85
And this red thread briefly ties the text together-the ruins
of a viscount's bridge and Charles Olson's Call Me Ish-
mael-seeming almost explanatory.
Perhapsthe observationof things has remained my most impor-
tant formal education; for observationlater becomes transformed
into memory. Now I seem to see all the things I have observed
arrangedlike tools in a neat row; they are aligned as in a botani-
cal chart,or a catalogue,or a dictionary.Butthis catalogue,lying
somewherebetweenimaginationand memory,is not neutral;it
always reappearsin several objects and constitutes their deforma-
tion and, in some way,their evolution.186
But this second and strongerinstance immediately con-
cludes with one of the hermetic images of the text: "There
was a sheer drop of ten meters from the highest point of
the room."187
And a voyage begins again, increasinglywithin objects,
within a recreatednature:beaches and cabins, shells and
the Elba project, water and the negative invention of a
prototype:"The Hotel Sirena is so fundamental to my ar-
chitecture that someone may think of it as my invention,
as one of my projects. I might add that because of its
courtyardtypology, it also embodies an aspect of my archi-
tectural analysis of building volumes. In reality, though, it
is not the typological aspect of the hotel which has influ-
enced my work, but its color-certainly from the point of
view of the marvelous."'188Here Rossi destructureshis own
theoretical thinking in an explosion of referencesthat are
immediately interrupted:"The principal associationbe-
tween the hotel and the green was representedby a girl
who was named, in contrast, Rosanna or Rossana, and the
sense of paint and contrastingcolors was never disentan-
gled in me: specifically the oppositions between the acid
green and this rose rosanna, between the color of flesh and
a slightly unusual flower, all of which were enclosed in the
image of the Sirena."'189And the returningscenarios con-
struct the autobiographyin a few pages, seeming almost
autonomous or out of place in the text. This is even true
of the pages dedicated to the Little Scientific Theater,
111

which are also the most explicit pages of the entire Scien-
tific Autobiography.190
The resumption of writing seems to representa furtherstep
towardthe metaphysical image: "This sensibilitypresided
over the project which has often been describedin differ-
ent ways and which I have called Projectfor a Villa with
Interior.Forgetting Architectureis perhapsa much more
The temporal dimension is henceforth
appropriatetitle."'191
completely absent, but the "geographical"one also appears
to be in dissolution. The typological referencesto Schinkel's
villa-pavilion in the parkat Charlottenburgare also decon-
textualized:"The Palladian idea of space took the villa out
of its context; this space, with which we are so familiar,
can be found both along the Rio Paranaiand on Lake
Como, in New England and on the Mediterranean-in
short, anywhere one wishes."192
For those who have followed Aldo Rossi up to A Scientific
Autobiography,the pages that follow, written in a difficult
and enigmatic style, are disorienting.
You can alreadyreadthe projectin existinghouses,selectit from
a repertorywhich you can easilyprocure,pursueit in the variants
of its production,in the actor'scues, in the atmosphereof the
theater,and alwaysbe surprisedby Hamlet'suncertainties . ..
Perhapsa designis merelythe spacewherethe analogiesin their
identificationwiththingsonce againarriveat silence
..
A designpursuesthis fabricof connections,memories,images,
yet knowingthatin the end it will haveto be definitiveaboutthis
or thatsolution;on the otherhand,the original,whetherin its
trueor presumedstate,will be an obscureobjectwhichis identi-
fiedwith its copy.193
Rationality, which is presentedas a relationalstructurebe-
tween options that are open but reconcilable at least by
virtue of their permanence, seems to be resolvedin ritual:
"Todayif I were to talk about architecture,I would say
that it is a ritual ratherthan a creative process. I say this
fully understandingthe bitternessand the comfort of the
ritual."194 The rationalityof the sketches and plans almost
becomes history'sirony towardthe present.
This expressedmy horrorand critique of limitatio. It reminded
me of the farmersin the Veneto who, as a result of their
assemblage 5
centuries-old poverty,broke down the Roman measurementof
the fields, building on both the cardoand the decumanus. This
has always impressedme because it shows how the street, the
element of public order, escaped being subjectedto privateowner-
ship as the fields were, and thereforecould not be claimed by a
state in ruins or by an abstractempire.19
For the first time, since the beginning of A Scientific Au-
tobiography, Rossi gives into the game of providing mo-
tivations for his readings (Antonelli) as for his works (the
Gallaratese project) until he turns his irony toward himself:
"Perhaps I took an interest in architecture because of the
mythical legends about the Great Wall of China or the
tombs at Mycenae. "196 But either there is no contextual-
ity-and thus no possible order-in the reconstruction that
Rossi gives us of his works, or the motivations he presents
have references that are all internal and that end up by
canceling each other out.
In the project for the cemetery at Modena, as I have said, I
sought to resolve the youthful problem of death through represen-
tation. I know very well that this may not be the best way to
begin an explanationof a project, nor is the skeletalmediation or
meditation on bones which I have alreadymentioned.
Beyond these things, though, there still clearly existed in this
project a mediation between the object and its representation,a
mediation which somehow vanished from subsequentprojects.
The central concept of the cemetery was perhapsmy realization
that the things, objects, buildings of the dead are not different
from those of the living. I have referredto the Roman tomb of
the baker,an abandonedfactory,an empty house; I also saw
death in the sense of "no one lives here anymore"and hence as
regret, since we do not know what our relationswith this person
were, and yet we still search for him in some way.
My project subsequentlybecame identified with the distance or
path requiredto get to its site, ultimately its constructionsite.197
Rossi presents this constructed site as a place of small an-
omalies: "Whenever I followed the progress of my few real-
ized projects, I liked the errors made on the construction
site, the little deformations, the changes which became re-
medial in some unexpected way."'19 And the memory that
estranges ends up by presenting an architecture born of a
rigidity of forms that has become unrecognizable, as an
opportunity for poetics or infinite analogies.
112

Rossi seems to fall into his own game of analogies:"Cer-
tainly every place is unqiue to the extent that it possesses
limitless affinities or analogies with other places; even the
concept of identity, and hence that of difference, is rela-
tive."'"9And he adds, "This kind of forgettingis also asso-
ciated with a loss of our own identity and that of the things
we observe;every change occurs within a moment of
obsession."200
Rossi's reflection on the small house gives us a sense of the
change he underwent in the 1970s. The emergence of a
theme is tied, for the first time in the text, to a typology;
but the recognition of a type is no longer tied to its recur-
rence, to the observationof permanences:"There exists an
entire technical terminology to describe this so-called small
house. Yet I realized this for the firsttime in my drawings
for The Cabins of Elba, which date back, I believe, to
1973.'"201 Even the logical object privilegedby Rossi-
typology-loses its fascination as rationalconstruction in
order to present itself as a privaterecurrence, where the
social characteristicsof the type evidently do not come
first. The Elba cabin then pursues the huts in the Alps,
the confessionals, the houses built for the Indians of the
Jesuit utopian villages-houses with no place "becausethe
locus is inside, or is identified with whoever lives in the
house for a time-a stay which we know may be brief but
which we cannot calculate."202
This precariousnessof events contrastswith the perma-
nence of the structure:"The cabin, as I see it, always has
four walls and a tympanum;the tympanum is more than
functional, since it also suggestsa banner and its color.
The colored stripesare an integral and determiningpart,
perhapsthe most obviously architectonic part of the
structure."203And the pages that follow signal, in a multi-
plication privatereferences, a dismantling of this con-
of
ceptualization that can only be restoredby reading. It is a
writing that asks to be declaimed, that is increasinglyrich
in literaryquotations, that recoverspolemical tones that
have since been abandoned.
Yetwhen I waswritingTheArchitecture of theCity, I mustsayI
felt a profoundadmirationforViollet-le-Duc:whathe did was
likea game,a challengeto history,a totaltrustin a signthatwas
devoidof drama-it wasnot unlikeLudwigof Bavaria's castles.
Olmo
Modernarchitecture hastreatedall thesethingsin an insaneway,
searchingfor some unknownpurity:yet thiswasourtradition.204
And like The Architectureof the City, Rossi's introduction
to Boullke's essay (a text on the legitimation of perma-
nences) became the matter of a memory that flattensout,
in the present, the indefinite time of the series or reinvents
it as an occasion for poetics.
In the introductory essayto the Boullketranslation I speakof
conventionalrationalism and exaltedrationalism,but did I per-
hapsfail to noticethatlife itselfwasan exaltedrationalism? Boul-
1le thinks about a libraryand the is
library its volumes:it is their
weightthatdeterminesit, and not justin the senseof statics.The
libraryis realizedin a spacewhichBoullke,likea visionary,tra-
versesas if it werethatof TheSchoolof Athens,forsuch is the
spaceof thesemen throughwhomhe walks.Andwhatcouldbe
changed?Whatcouldbe changedafterhis enormousdiscoveryof
lightand shadow?Boullkeexplicitlyassertsthathe hasdiscovered
the architecture of shadows,and hencethe architecture of light.
With this insighthe taughtme how lightand shadowarenothing
but the otherfacesof chronologicaltime, the fusionof thatat-
mosphericand chronologicaltempowhichdisplaysandthen con-
sumesarchitecture, and presentsan imageof it thatis briefyet
simultaneously extended.205
This voyage through the destructionof typologies con-
cludes with one of Rossi's most abstractdeclarationsof po-
etics: "Yet the architecture, having gone beyond function
and history, dream and feeling, flesh and weariness, had
approacheda light that was rose-green, but filteredthrough
so many things that it turned back into whiteness, or into
the lake, or into the remoteness of the lake."206This return
to whiteness, this remoteness of the lake is the very mean-
ing of the forgettingof architectureand gives us a sense of
how far Rossi progressedduring the seventies.
Rossi returns, in the pages that follow, to concepts already
developed in the text-reality and description, archaeologi-
cal finds (this time the castrum lunatum, or crescent-
shaped forts, of a few Swiss cities), the strongestplaces of
memory. It is a returnthat foreshadowsa more internal
circle of the text, that of discipline, of the project. Speak-
ing again of the Projectfor a Villa with Interior,Rossi
writes,
113

Actually,this project,like thesenotes,speaksof the dissolutionof
the discipline;it is not verydifferentfromthe commentsI made
at the beginningof this textin referenceto the day I observedthe
ancientbridgeon the MincioRiver.I am not surehow realthis
dissolutionis. Perhapsit also is partof my awareness thatgreat
thingsareno longerpossibleand thatthe limitationsof one's
craft are a form of defense.207
The last key that Aldo Rossi seems to present is thus the
theory of abandonment, "whereabandonment is the begin-
ning of design, where abandonment is identified with
hope."208 Did he abandon the architecturesthat he studied
and loved (Sant'Andreain Mantua and the Tempio Mala-
testiano in Rimini) and the typologies recognized, in work
and in the field, as archaeological finds (permanenttypolo-
gies such as the courtyard,the balcony, and the cabin-
house) to be able to design again? Fixation and exclusion,
repetition and invention reappearto become-as they were
in The Architectureof the City-the almost obsessiveterms
of Rossi's thinking, puns that have to explain the dissolu-
tion of a discipline, reinvented in permanence itself and in
the small disorientations,when architectureseemed to be
dissolving in the social realm.
And Rossi began anew with the projectsof that period in
order to dismantle the logical construction of architecture,
in order to dismantle the image of neo-Enlightenment ar-
chitecture that had provokedso much discussion. But the
return to these projectswas fortuitous, serving to confirm,
and not to discuss, the argumentsof those years. It was not
the description of the project that Rossi has so often almost
announced, but a vicious cycle that led him to distance
himself in order to return "a little furtheron."
Thereis no photograph of FagnanoOlonathatI love so muchas
the one of the childrenstandingon the stairunderthe huge
clockwhichis indicatingbotha particular time andalsothe time
of childhood,the time of groupphotos,withall the jokingthat
such photosusuallyentail.The buildinghas becomepurethe-
ater,but it is the theaterof life, even if everyeventis already
anticipated.
Becauseeveryaspectof the buildingis anticipated,andbecauseit
is preciselythis anticipationthatallowsforfreedom,the architec-
tureis like a date,a honeymoon,a vacation-likeeverything that
is anticipatedso that it can occur. Although I also love what is
assemblage 5
uncertain,I havealwaysthoughtthatonly small-minded people
with littleimaginationareopposedto discreetactsof organiza-
thatin the end
tion;for it is only such effortsof organization
permitcontretemps, variations,joys,disappointments.209
Fixation and exclusion, repetitionand invention: the logi-
cal connection that bridgesthese two antinomies is re-
scinded, then renewed, by Rossi in describingthe Duomo
in Milan or the settling of land in the New Yorkdesigns of
1977.210 Fixation is from time to time synonymous with
the obligation to repeat, with molecular structure,with the
archaeologicalfind; it is relatedto the things of architec-
ture, to dynamics, to biology. Thus exclusion is translated
into freedom, abandonment, death, and is accompanied by
referencesto Ignazio di Loyola, Raymond Roussel, but
also to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
But the logical connections that link the two antinomies
are not renderedby the game of synonyms. Nor are they
explained by the theory of abandonmentor of observation
or by the new projects(Trieste and the Teatro del Mondo),
which are presentedalmost as interpolationsinto writing,
an umpteenth shift of meaning.
Perhapswe ought to begin to consider that, for Rossi, the
dissolution of the discipline is truly a vicious cycle, a pro-
cess in which matterand forms are constitutedby the same
points of view on matterand in which normativeauton-
omy is replaced by disciplinarytransgressionand a crossing
of boundaries.211 "Transcendingspecific analogies, I saw
more and more clearly how beauty lies in the place where
matter encounters differentmeanings. Nothing can be
beautiful, not a person, a thing, a city, if it signifies only
itself, indeed if it signifies nothing but its own use."212
While the theater-that again-becomes the place "where
architectureended and the world of the imagination or
even the irrationalbegan,"213the metaphorsthat accom-
pany its junctures, its fagades, and its roof go back to Santa
Clara at Santiago de Compostella and to his experience of
surgery,to the lighthouse of Cabe Espichel, and to the
opinions of Tafuri, Portoghesi,and Libeskind.The points
of view seem to replace the work and to remain its prison-
ers: the game Rossi proposes-one that shifts from the
Teatro del Mondo to the Little Scientific Theater, then to
the anatomical theater at Padua, and the Globe Theatre-
114

seems to enlarge the circle to include the spectators,
thereby creating complicity and revolt.
The type, which is the irreducibleunity of knowledgefor
the architect, dissolves in an analogical process in which
"analogyis constituted by things that have alreadybeen
apprehendedby means of a process of which only the re-
sult is reported."214As the result of a process often impos-
sible to reconstruct, the project is, in this way, legitimated
as the only knowable element, as architecture-and here
antinomy returns, a rhetoricalfigure that replacessmall
disorientations-is legitimated as the condition that allows
the unforeseeable.
This freedomof typology,once established,has alwaysfascinated
me as a problemof form.On this subjectI couldcite numerous
examples,but I wouldbe repeatingthingsI havealreadysaid.
CertainlyI havealwaysbeen enthusiasticaboutthe tavernsset up
underthe huge archesof the Schnell-Bahnin Berlin,the two-
storykiosksthatsit behindthe cathedralin Ferrara,and many
otherthingswherea particular functioncausesan eventto unfold
beneaththe mostunexpectedroofs.215
The forgettingof architectureand the recognition of it as
the "fixedscene of human events";216the processesof anal-
ogy and of observation;the "astoundingspeed of the al-
ready seen" and the immobility of a botanical chart;217 the
joining of Plato and a photographof the BrandenburgGate
taken after the war, the Sacri Monti and a complex under-
standing of history:these are the unreconciled terms of the
Rossian poetic, which-perhaps because of their very non-
resolution-today seem less disturbingand irritatingthan
architectureas a logical form. And it is perhapsin these
last passagesthat A Scientific Autobiographyreveals itself as
an autonomous and self-sufficienttext, a voyage through
the present, that cannot be used to explain projects, a de-
vice that shows us Aldo Rossi at the drawingboard.The
fact that the spectatorfinds himself caught up in the game
of referencesis part of a condition that is both critical and
existential, but that gives everyone an opportunityto de-
cide which part he will play.
Yet it may be more useful to discuss the text of poetics
than the provocations. The text is too complex to become
paradigmatic,but it may also be the only work produced
Olmo
in recent times that presentsitself as a written archi-
tectonic poetic.
The 1980s have signaled for Rossi a critical success that
has-except for the case of the Teatro Carlo Felice in
Genoa-been free from disturbanceand provocation.218
His architecture, above all, his projects, are widely ana-
lyzed even outside the journals of tendenza, such as Op-
positions or ArchitecturalDesign, that had followed his
production in the 1970s. Between Tafuri'sThe Sphereand
the Labyrinthand Eugene J. Johnson's"What Remains of
Man, Aldo Rossi's Modena Cemetery"stand far-reaching
essays dedicated to Rossi's architecture:and they are being
published in such journals as The Journalof Architectural
Historians and The HarvardArchitecturalReview.219These
essays, for those who write them and for their closeness to
Rossi'sworks, have withdrawnfrom the game of analogies
that was accepted by many architectsin the seventies.220
They indicate that at least a part of contemporaryhisto-
riographyhas stepped back from the marketof journalism,
a more general process in recent years.
At present, Rossi has reduced his texts to introductionsto
worksor exhibitions;he seems to be tying his thinking,
which A Scientific Autobiographyhad restoredin all its
complexity, to occasions where the brevityand precarious-
ness of his writing almost suggest the fulfillment of a duty.
The search for a furtherdialectical phase between idea and
material has led Rossi to the paradoxof a project that is
autonomous from both construction and the materialof
construction:"Paradoxicallyonce the final form is as-
sumed, projectsand models would finally become exact
ideas, typologies, henceforth separatedfrom the architect,
ready to be materialized, to be duplicated to infinity."221
Typology, the irreducibleunity of architecture,becomes
separatedfrom the occasions and processesthat defined it,
to become itself the material for an infinity of other
combinations.
In his introduction to Il teatro del mondo, as in the presen-
tation of the exhibition Architettura/ideafor the Triennale
of 1981, Rossi returnsto the unpredictabilityof this vari-
ant, as well as to the anomaly of correspondences,the rup-
ture between history and meaning, and the overturning
115
 assemblage 5

of functions that modify the building.222But Rossi is not comes the principal interpreter "L'influenzadel romanticismoeu-
satisfiedwith projects as the completed materialsof a of a drama in which nature and ropeo sull'architetturadi Alessandro
local traditionare admirably Antonelli,"
"destroyedchain of comparisons, memories, and reactions orchestrated." 214 (1957): Casabella-continuita
63-70; reprintedin
that autonomously superimposethemselves upon the con- Scritti scelti, 28.
struction."223Recently, alongside his occasional writings, 8. A. Rossi, "I1concetto di tradi-
zione nell'architetturaneoclassica 16. See A. Rossi, A Scientific Au-
Rossi has republished the introductionto Boull6e's essay in
milanese," Societa 3 (1956): 474- tobiography(Cambridge, 1981), and
the Biennale catalogue; he has reprinted"L'azzurrodel 93; reprintedin A. Rossi, Scritti K. Wachsmann, Una svolta nelle
cielo" in ArchitecturalDesign and "Che fare delle vecchie scelti sull'architetturae la citta, costruzioni(Milan, 1960); reprinted
1956-1972 (Milan, 1975), 9. in 1965 with an introduction by
cittat?"in Hinterland; and he has returnedto his writings C. C. Argan.
on Loos in the introduction to Gravagnuolo'stext and to 9. Ibid., 4.
La civiltd occidentale.224 In an attitude that necessarilyre- 17. J. Summerson, "The Case for a
10. Ibid., 11.
calls the Cannibale and L'Unique eunuque, these texts Theory of Modern Architecture,
11. Ibid., 21. This passageis useful RIBA Journal(July 1957), and
have also became the material of a new writing, which
for dating the accepted meaning of Francastel, L'Artet la societe
seems almost to consume the project. And through Rossi's the concept of monumentality that moderne.
texts-like the desertersof L'Osteriadella frontieraa developed before, during, and after 18. See, for example, R. Gabetti,
Szvaby-the dialogue with the verifierof weights and the Second World War, in the Due operedi Antonelli a Soliva e
measures seems to become the final absurdity. articles by C. Sunabarg,"Monu- Cortagnola (Turin, 1960), and
mentalitet,"Byggmastaren2 idem, Problematicaantonelliana
(July 1939): 297ff.; R. Meyer, (Turin, 1962). On "historicisms,"
Notes "Monumentalitit, Diskussion Ober and especially on Gae Aulenti,
1. See C. Geertz, Local Knowl- the construction of a communist MonumentalitAt,"Das Werk27 Giorgio Raineri, Vittorio Gregotti,
(1940): 189ff.; and L. Mumford, among others, Rossi wrote "I1pas-
edge: Further Essays in Interpreta- politics and culture on the issues "Monumentalism:Symbolism and
tive Anthropology(New York, of housing and the territory(see sato e il presente nella nuova archi-
Style," ArchitecturalReview (April tettura,"Casabella-continuita 219
1983), and C. Levi, "I pericoli del Diotallevi and Marescotti, II prob-
1949). See C. Olmo, "Perun con-
lema sociale costruttivoe economico (1958): 16ff.
geertzismo,"Quaderni storici 58 cetto di monumentaliti," Atti e
(1958): 269ff. dell'abitazione [Milan, 1948]) or the
rassegnatecnica della Societa degli 19. A. Rossi, "L'ordinegreco," a
Olivettian experience (see B. Berta, review of F. Cali's L'Ordregrec
2. As reference texts on moments Ingegnerie degli Architettidi
in a discussion of ideology that may Le idee al potere [Milan, 1980]). Torino(March 1969): Iff. (Paris, 1958) in Casabella-contin-
Galvano Della Volpe's text Logica
be interestingto reexamine today, 12. M. Dufrenne's text, L'Esperi- uita 228 (1959): 5-12; reprintedin
see C. Della Volpe, Critica dell' come scienza positiva, published in Scritti scelti, 76.
ence esthetique(Paris, 1953), should
ideologiacontemporanea(Rome, 1956, was expanded and reissued as
Logica come scienza storia in 1969; perhapsbe analyzed in detail to 20. A. Rossi, "Una critica che res-
1969), and C. Vattimo, from his date Rossi's reflection. The Italian
it was translatedinto English as pingiamo," review of H. Sedlmayr,
Introduzionea Heidegger(Bari, translationof a work often quoted
Logic as a Positive Science La rivoluzionedell'artemoderna
1971) to his Pensierodebole, with by Rossi-P. Francastel,L'Art et la
(London, 1980). (Milan, 1958) in Casabella-contin-
Rovatti (Milan, 1983). societe moderne(1956)---appeareda uita 219 (1958): 33-35, reprintedin
3. A. Rossi, "La coscienza di poter 5. G. Canella and A. Rossi, few years later (Milan, 1959). Scritti scelti, 55-56.
"Mario Ridolfi," Comunita 41
'dirigerela natura,'" Voce comu- 13. The use of the term "ambigu-
nista 31 (1954): 5; also see "Inter- (1956): 50-55. 21. Ibid., 49.
itv" refers, above all, to W. Emp-
vento al convegno degli architetti 6. A. Rossi, "I1linguaggio di 22. A. Rossi, "Emil Kaufmanne
son, Seven Types of Ambiguity
comunisti," 7-9 October 1955; and Perret,"II Contemporaneo33 (London, 1931), and its revival
l'architetturadell'illuminismo,"
C. Canella and A. Rossi, "Politica (1955): 11. Casabella-continuita 222 (1958):
from P. Ricoeur, Della interpreta-
dell'industrial design," Voce comu- zione (Milan, 1966) to Geertz, 43-46; reprintedin Scritti scelti,
7. Canella and Rossi, "Mario
nista 22 (1955): 4. 62ff.
Ridolfi," 55: "Originalityresides "Local Knowledge."
4. What is missing from the many exactly as has been said in the con- 23. E. Paci's position within the
14. H. Rosenberg, The Traditionof
studies that reconstructthe frag- quering of a new point of view. The editorialstaff of Casabella is a sub-
the New (New York, 1959).
ments of the debate of those years building, in the sentimental sub- ject that still requiresa complete
on home and city is an analysis of stance that comes from man, be- 15. V. Gregotti and A. Rossi, examination. See, for example, E.

116

Paci, "Problematicadell'architettura
moderna,"Casabella-continuith
209 (1954): 41ff., and idem,
"Wrighte lo spazio vissuto," Casa-
bella-continuita 227 (1959): 8ff.
24. E. Panofsky,Meaning in Vis-
ual Art (New York, 1955); C.
Brandi, Eliante o dell'architettura
(Turin, 1956);and S. Bettini, "Cri-
tica semantica o continuitaistorica
dell'architetturaeuropea,"Zodiac 2
(1958): 7ff.
25. From L. L. White, Aspectsof
Forms (London, 1951) to A. A.
Moles, Thdoriede l'informationet
de la perceptionesthetique(Paris,
1958). See Rossi, A Scientific Auto-
biography,8, 16, 23, and passim.
26. A. Rossi, "A propositodi un
recente studio sull'artnouveau," a
review of S. Tschudi Madsen,
Sourcesof Art Nouveau (Oslo,
1956), in Casabella-continuita 215
(1957): 45-46.
27. Rossi, "Emil Kaufmann e l'ar-
chitetturadell'illuminismo," 70.
28. G. Paulsson, Die soziale Di-
mension der Kunst (Berne, 1955);
A. Gutkind, Architetturae societa,
spazio e materia, gruppo ed indivi-
duo (Milan, 1958), especially "Uti-
lita e tutto," 129ff.; and C. Morris,
Signs, Language and Behavior
(New York, 1946).
29. A. Rossi, "Un monumento a
New York:11Seagram Building,"
Casabella-continuita 223 (1959):
7-8, and idem, "AdolfLoos 1870-
1933," Casabella-continuita 233
(1959): 5-12; reprintedin Scritti
scelti. 82ff.
30. With articles on Behrens, La
Tourette, the English experience,
Howard, and Vienna.
31. Rossi, "Adolf Loos 1870-
1933," 102.
32. Rossi, "Un monumento a New
York:11Seagram Building," 8.
33. Quotations from Loos and Tes-
senow are present in A. Rossi,
C. V. Polesello, and F. Tentori,
"PeterBehrens e il problema
dell'abitazione moderna,"Casa-
bella-continuita 240 (1960): 47-48,
as well as in various essays on the
problem of the suburbs. A. Rossi,
"Un giovane architetto tedesco:
Oswald Mathias Ungers," Casa-
bella-continuita 244 (1960): 22;
idem, "Aspettidell'architetturate-
desca contemporanea,"Casabella-
continuita'235 (1960): 27-32; and
idem, "L'Atelier5 di Berna,"Casa-
bella-continuita 258 (1961): 26.
34. This definition can be found in
M. Tafuri, La sfera e il labrinto
(Turin, 1980); English trans., The
Sphereand the Labyrinth:Avant-
Gardes and Architecturefrom Pira-
nesi to the 1970s (Cambridge,
1987), 273. The definition was
taken up again as the "constructiv-
ism of emptiness"in D. Libeskind,
"'Deus ex Machina'/'Machina ex
Deo': Aldo Rossi's Theater of the
World," Oppositions 21 (1980): 18.
35. J. Rykwert,"XV Triennale,"
Domus 530 (1974): 8; collected in
The Necessity of Artifice (London,
1982).
36. Alonso's text and the first
"static"models of those years were
extraordinarilysuccessful among the
students of territorialexpansion. See
P. C. Palermo, Modelli di analisi
territoriale(Milan, 1983), 15ff.
37. A. Rossi and S. Tintori, "As-
petti urbanisticidel problema della
zone arretratein Italia e in Eu-
ropa," in CNPDS, Problemisullo
sviluppo delle aree arretrate(Bo-
logna, 1960), 243-389.
38. G. U. Polesello, F. Tentori,
and A. Rossi, "I1problema della
periferianella cittAmoderna,"Cas-
abella-continuita 241 (1960): 38; re-
printed in Scritti scelti, 113. This
relationshipwith the Triennale
Olmo
lasted until 1981, in a continuity
that needs to be placed in context
and analyzed.
39. Ibid., 117.
40. Ibid., 128.
41. Ibid., 130.
42. Ibid., 132.
43. Ibid., 134.
44. See E. W. Herbert,Artistic
and Social Reform(New Haven,
1961).
45. S. Tintori, A. Rossi, and L.
Semerani, "Rispostea sei do-
mande," Casabella-continuita 251
(1961): 29-32; reprintedin Scritti
scelti, 148.
46. H. P. Bahrdt, Die moderne
Grosstadt(Hamburg, 1961), and R.
Reiner, PlanungskonzeptWien
(Vienna, 1963).
47. A. Rossi, "La citti e la peri-
feria,"Casabella-continuiti 253
(1961): 23-26; reprintedin Scritti
scelti, 166.
48. A. Rossi, "L'uomo della metro-
poli," review of H. Hellpach,
L'uomo della metropoli(Milan,
1960), in Casabella-continuita 258
(1961): 22; idem, "La regione di
Amburgo,"Casabella-continuita'
270 (1962): 26-27; and idem, "Un
piano per Vienna," review of R.
Reiner, PlanungskonzeptWien
(Vienna, 1963), in Casabella-
continuitc 277 (1963): 3-20; re-
printed in Scritti scelti, 193ff.
49. Rossi, "Un piano per Vienna,"
202.
50. See M. Poete, Introductiona
l'urbanisme,L'Evolution des villes,
la legon de l'antiquite (Paris, 1929).
51. G. C. Argan, Progettoe destino
(Milan, 1965).
52. A. Rossi, "Considerazionisulla
morfologia urbana e la tipologia ed-
ilizia," in Aspetti e problemidella
117
tipologia edilizia (Venice, 1964); re-
printed in Scritti scelti, 210.
53. Ibid., 214-15.
54. A. Rossi, "Contributoal pro-
blema dei rapportitra tipologia
edilizia e morfologia urbana"(an
examination of an area in Milan,
with particularattention paid to
building typologies produced by pri-
vate interventions),ILSES 4, no. 4
(Milan, 1964): 1-115; reprintedin
Scritti scelti, 276.
55. E. Mattioni, C. U. Polesello,
A. Rossi, and L. Semerani, "Citti e
territorionegli aspetti funzionali e
figuratividella pianificazione con-
tinua," in the Proceedingsof the X
Congresso INU (1965); reprintedin
Scritti scelti, 290.
56. Ibid., 295.
57. A. Rossi, Tipologia, manualis-
tica e architettura,"in Rapporti tra
morfologiaurbana e tipologia edili-
zia (Venice, 1966); reprintedin
Scritti scelti, 308.
58. Ibid., 309.
59. Mattioni et "Citt' e territo-
al.,
rio," 290.
60. Ibid., 296.
61. A. Rossi, L'architetturadella
citta (Padua, 1966); rev. English
trans., The Architectureof the City
(Cambridge, 1982). From a com-
paratistperspective-which I have
not followed here since the estab-
lished monographicalreadingsare
ratherfragile-the text to confront
would be C. Aymonino, La forma-
zione del concetto di tipologia edili-
zia (Venice, 1965).
62. It is not easy to date the defini-
tion of the concept of "analogous
city," which has, moreover, already
been analyzed by E. Bonfanti,
"Elementi e costruzione: Note
sull'architetturadi Aldo Rossi,"
Controspazio2, no. 10 (1970): 27.
Its explicit conceptualization can be

foundin A. Rossi,"Lacitti anal-
oga:Tavola,"LotusInternational
13 (1976):4-7. Alsosee n. 167.
Tafurihas alreadyunderlinedthe
riskof followingRossiin The
Sphereand theLabyrinth,283.
63. Rossi,TheArchitecture
of the
City, 21.
64. Ibid., 21-22.
65. Ibid., 22.
66. See Tafuri,TheSphereand the
Labyrinth,273-74; K. Frampton,
"Twoor ThreeThingsI Know
aboutThem:A Note on Manner-
ism,"ArchitecturalDesignno. 5
(1977):315ff.;and Libeskind,
"'Deusex Machina'/'Machina ex 74. Rossi, The Architectureof the
City, 41.
Deo,'" 2ff.
67. H. Sedlmayr,Die Revolution
dermodernen Kunst,waspublished
in an Italiantranslation
(Milan)in
1958. VerlustderMitte, his most
discussedtext, wastranslatedin
1966(Turin).Foranyoneinterested
in contextualizingRossi'sthinking,
I recommendC. Siegel,Struktur-
formendermodernen Architektur
(Munich,1960),and, withoutmak-
reference,read-
ing any "necessary"
ingsfromBorromini,Sedlmayr,
Viollet-le-Duc,Damish,Michel-
angelo,and Brandi.
68. C. L&vi-Strauss,Le Cruet le
cuit, waspublishedin Parisin
1964;Englishtrans.,TheRawand
theCooked(NewYork,1969).The
Italiantranslation
of La Pensdesau-
vagewaspublishedin 1966(Milan);
Englishtrans.,TheSavageMind
(LondonandChicago,1966).
69. Rossi,TheArchitecture of the humaine (Paris, 1963); M. Poite,
City, 24.
70. Ibid.,40.
71. P.Cargnello,Alteritae alienitd
(Milan, 1966),especially25ff.;and
A. Bonomi,Esistenzae struttura 80. Rossi, The Architectureof the
(Milan, 1967).One of Rossi'smore City, 51.
emphasizedcitationsis P. Francas- 81. Ibid., 55.
tel, "Nota sull'impiego del termine
strutturain storia dell'arte,"in Usi e
significati del terminestruttura
(Milan, 1965), 45ff.
72. Rossi, The Architectureof the
City, 41.
73. The reference for Barilli is Per
un estetica mondana (Bologna,
1964). The citations to Argan alone
deserve an essay:for example, see
G. C. Argan, "Modulo misura e
modulo oggetto," in Progettoe de-
stino (Milan, 1965), 104ff., and
idem, "La crisi dei valori," in Sal-
vezza e caduta dell'arte moderna
(Milan, 1964), 30.
75. Ibid., 46. For the concept of
dialectics in action, see M. Mer-
leau-Ponty, Fenomenologiadella
percezione(Milan, 1965), 24ff.; En-
glish trans., Phenomenologyof Per-
ception (London, 1962). Another
requiredcitation is E. Paci, "Prob-
lematica dell'architetturamoderna,"
41ff.
76. Rossi, The Architectureof the
City, 48.
77. The text that providedthe
startingpoint for the discussion of
Parsonswas The Social System
(Glencoe, 1951); a first criticism ap-
peared in C. Gurtvitch, "Le Con-
cept de structuresociale," Cahiers
internationaux de Sociologie 19
(1955): 21-31.
78. See Bonomi, Esistenza e strut-
tura.
79. J. Tricart, Cours de gographie
Introductiond l'urbanisme;and
idem, Une vie de cit&:Paris de sa
naissance a' nos jours, 4 vols. (Paris,
1924-31).
assemblage 5
82. Ibid., 56.
83. Ibid., 59.
84. Ibid., 61.
85. Ibid., 63.
86. Ibid., 88.
87. Ibid., 92.
88. Ibid., 95.
89. Ibid., 103.
90. Ibid., 106.
91. Ibid., 113.
92. Ibid., 116.
93. Ibid., 127.
94. Ibid., 130.
95. Ibid., 131.
96. See H. Pirenne, Les Villes et
les institutions urbaines(Paris,
1939), M. Halbwachs, La Popula-
tion et les tracdsde voies a'Paris,
depuis un siecle (Paris, 1928), but
also idem, La Mmoire collective,
which Rossi cites in the 1950 edi-
tion, and La Morphologiesociale
(Paris, 1930). A recent evaluation of
the importanceof Halbwachs'scon-
tribution to urban studies can be
found in M. Roncayolo, Enciclope-
dia Einaudi vol. 3 (Turin, 1978),
"Citta'."
54-55, s.v.
97. A. Rossi, "Introduzionea
Boull6e," in Etienne-Louis Boull6e,
Architettura:Saggio sull'arte, trans.
A. Rossi (Padua, 1967); reprintedin
Scritti scelti, 346ff. A few interest-
ing essays have recently been pub-
lished on the relationshipbetween
ritual and architecturein France
between 1750 and 1814. See M.
Ozouf, La Fete revolutionnaire
(Paris, 1976); B. Baczko, Lumieres
de l'utopie (Paris, 1978);and M.
Agulhon, Marianne va au combat
(Paris, 1979).
98. K. Jaspers,AllgemeinePsycho-
pathologie, first published in 1913,
was translatedin 1964 (Rome); M.
118
Heidegger, Holzwege was translated
into Italian in 1968. But Heideg-
ger's philosophy was alreadybecom-
ing well known; see A. Colombo,
Martin Heidegger(Bologna, 1964).
99. See M. Merleau-Ponty,Sense
and Non-Sense (Evanston, 1964).
100. Rossi, The Architectureof the
City, 158-59.
101. Ibid., 154.
102. From G. Campos Venuti,
Amministrarel'urbanistica(Turin,
1967), to C. Forte, Analisi storica
della rendita urbana (Naples,
1970).
103. Rossi, The Architectureof the
City, 160.
104. See G. Ferracutiand M.
Marcelloni, La casa, mercatoe pro-
grammazione(Turin, 1984), 61ff.
105. V. Gregotti, II territorio
dell'architettura(Milan, 1966).
106. See T. W. Adorno, Negative
Dialektik (Frankfurt,1966); English
trans., Negative Dialectics (New
York, 1973), and C. Olmo, "Fun-
zionalismo e storicismo,"Contro-
spazio 1, no. 7 (1969): 23ff.
107. Rossi, "Introduzionea Boul-
16e,"346ff.
108. A. Rossi, "L'architettura
dell'illuminismo," in BernardoVit-
tone e la disputa fra classicismoe
barocconel settecento, catalogue to
exhibition held at the Academia
della Scienze, Turin, 21-24 Sep-
tember 1970 (Turin, 1973).
109. Rossi, "Introduzionea Boul-
16e,"348.
110. Ibid.
111. Ibid., 350.
112. Ibid.
113. Ibid., 351.
114. See C. Olmo, "Progettoe
oggetto," in Politica e forma
(Florence, 1971), 53ff.

115. Rossi, "Introduzionea Boul-
ke," 351.
116. Ibid., 359.
117. Rossi's introduction to Boul-
16e'stext has been the object of
readingsthat have often been
merely evocative, even in the case
of the most careful critics;see E. J.
Johnson, "What Remains of Man,
Aldo Rossi's Modena Cemetery,"
Journalof the Society of Architec-
tural Historians 1 (July 1982): 39,
50, and E. Sekler, "Formalismand
the Polemical Use of History:
Thoughts on the Recent Discovery
of RevolutionaryClassicism," The
HarvardArchitecturalReview 1
(1980): 34-37.
118. Rossi, "L'architettura
dell'illuminismo," 463.
119. Ibid., 467ff.
120. Rossi, "Introduzionea Boul-
le," 351-52.
121. A. Rossi, "Che fare delle vec-
chie citta?"II confronto(February
1968): 41-43.
122. Ibid.
123. See two texts that were impor-
tant for Rossi, P. Lavedan, Histoire
de l'urbanisme, vol. 3, Epoque con-
temporaine(Paris, 1952), and G.
Samona, L'urbanisticae l'avvenire
della citta (Bari, 1959).
124. Rossi, "Che fare delle vecchie
citth?"41.
125. A. Rossi, "L'obiettivodella
nostra ricerca,"in L'analisi urbana
e la progettazionearchitettonica
(Milan, 1968-69), 16.
126. Rossi, Che fare delle vecchie
4
citta?"42.
127. See B. Secchi, Il raccontour-
banistico (Turin, 1984), 60ff.
128. A. Rossi, "I caratteriurbani
delle cittiavenete," in La citta di
Padova (Rome, 1970), 419-90; re-
printed in Scritti scelti, 382ff.
129. See A, Rossi, "L'architettura
della ragione come architetturadi
tendenza," introduction to Illumi-
nismo e architetturadel settecento
veneto, catalogue of the exhibition
held in CastelfrancoVeneto, 31
August-9 November 1969, 7-15,
and idem, "I caratteriurbani delle
citta venete," 382ff.
130. Ibid., 391.
131. Ibid., 392.
132. Ibid., 427.
133. P. C. Palermo, I modelli di
analisi territoriale(Milan, 1983),
15ff.
134. Rossi, "L'obiettivodella nostra
ricerca," 14.
135. See R. Gabetti and C. Olmo,
Le Corbusiere l'espritnouveau
(Turin, 1975).
136. For a "formalist"reading of
the tendenza, see, for example,
J. Silvetti, "On Realism in Archi-
tecture," The HarvardArchitectural
Review 1 (1980): 20ff.
137. A. Rossi, "Le teorie della pro-
gettazione," in L'analisi urbana e la
progettazionearchitettonica, 119.
138. See M. Tafuri, Architettura
italiana 1944-1981, in Storia
dell'arteitaliana, pt. 2, vol. 3, II
Novecento (Turin, 1982), 514ff.
(English trans. of revised ed., His-
tory of Italian Architecture1944-
1985 [Cambridge,forthcoming]);
M. Tafuri, The Sphereand the
Labyrinth, 282-90; Silvetti, "On
Realism in Architecture,"20ff.; and
D. Morton, "Tendenza-Italian
Rationalism:Rossi and Aymonino,"
ProgressiveArchitecture10 (1980):
49ff.
139. A. Rossi, "Due progetti"(in-
troduzione al S. Rocco e al Galla-
ratese), Lotus 7 (1970): 66.
140. Ibid., 62.
141. Ibid., 64.
Olmo
142. Ibid.
143. Ibid., 68.
144. This rigidityis evinced in a
more direct manner in the concept
of place (ibid., 67) and in the social
dimension of housing (ibid., 68).
145. A. Rossi, Progettoper un edi-
ficio di abitazione nel quartiere
Gallaratese a Milano (Milan,
1969).
146. See, especially, texts such as
G. Grassi, La costruzionelogica
della architettura(Padua, 1967).
147. See B. Huet, Anachroniques
d'architecture(Brussels, 1981), 32ff.;
but especially A. Tzonis and L.
Lefaivre, "The NarcissistPhase in
Architecture,"The HarvardArchi-
tectural Review 1 (1980): 53ff.
148. Besides the previouslycited
texts by Tafuri and Silvetti, I ought
to mention V. Savi, L'architettura
di A. Rossi (Milan, 1975), and M.
Steinmann, "Architektur,"introduc-
tion to Aldo Rossi, Bauen, Projekte,
exhibition catalogue (Zurich, 1973).
149. Bonfanti, "Elementi e costru-
zione: Note sull'architetturadi Aldo
Rossi," 19ff.
150. See, for example, D. Stewart,
"The Expressionof Ideological
Function in the Architectureof
Aldo Rossi,"A + U 65 (mono-
graphic issue, 1976): ll5ff.; R.
Moneo, "Aldo Rossi:The Idea of
Architectureand the Modena Cem-
etery,"Oppositions 5 (1976): 6-11;
D. Vitale, "Ritrovamenti,trasla-
zioni, analogie: Progettie fram-
menti di Aldo Rossi," Lotus 25
(1979): 55ff.; C. Jencks, "Free-Style
Classicism," ArchitecturalDesign
nos. 1-2 (1982): 16ff.; and P. Ei-
senman's article on Rossi in Aldo
Rossi in America 1976-1979, IAUS
catalogue 2 (Cambridge, 1979). But
see Tafuri, Architetturaitaliana
1944-1981, 542.
119
151. Bonfanti, "Elementi e costru-
zione," 25.
152. C. Melograni'sarticle was
published in Rinascita, 2 July
1971. See Architetturarazionale,
catalogue of the XV Triennale of
Milan, InternationalSection of Ar-
chitecture (Milan, 1973).
153. G. Gresleri, "Monumento e
progetto,"Parametro21-22 (1973):
4.
154. Rykwert,"XV Triennale," 11.
The series of articles published on
the Triennale is very large:In addi-
tion to Rykwertand Gresleri, see,
for example, B. Zevi, "Con Piacen-
tini in nome di Lenin," L'Espresso,
14 October 1973, and A. Col-
quhoun, "RationalArchitecture,"
ArchitecturalDesign no. 6 (1973):
365-70.
155. The temptation to draw "anal-
ogies" between the way Rossi de-
scribes his compositional activity
and the automatic writing of the
surrealistsis undoubtedly strong,
but we ought to keep in mind the
series of Rossi's project drawings
that are dispersedamong museums
and collectors, and not arrangedin
the architect'sown studio, in order
not to fall into interpretationslike
C. Jencks, "Post-ModernClassi-
cism: The New Synthesis,"Archi-
tectural Design no. 5-6 (1980):
10ff.
156. A. Rossi, "L'azzurrodel
cielo," project text for the new
Cemetery of Modena, Casabella
372 (1972): 21-22, and Controspa-
zio 4, no. 10 (1972): 4ff. English
trans., The Blue of the Sky,"Op-
positions 5 (1976): 31-34; A. Rossi
and G. Brahieri, "Poesia contro re-
torica,"Casabella 372 (1972): 20ff.;
and A. Rossi, "Due progettidi lau-
rea," Controspazio4, no. 5-6
(1972): 80-88.
157. A. Rossi, "L'Habitationet la

ville," L'Architectured'aujourd'hui
(July-August 1974): 31.
158. A. Rossi, "Aldo Rossi," Con-
trospazio6, no. 4 (1974): 38.
159. The iterations have been
underlined only when the defini-
tions are given in nearly literal
terms.
160. His exhibition Aldo Rossi,
Bauen, Projektein Zurich opened
among the remainder of the game
of the reconstructionsof the already
designed, upon the present activity
and the marketingof his designs.
161. A. Hirschman, Essays in
Trespassing:Economy to Politics
and Beyond (Cambridge, 1981).
162. A. Rossi, "Triestee una
donna," Controspazio 7, no. 2
(1975): 58, and idem, "Relazione
alla scuola di Fagnano Olona e alla
Casa dello Studente a Chieti," Lo-
tus 15 (1977): 41.
163. Rossi, "Triestee una donna,"
"I disegni, gli
56, and idemrn,
schizzi, la vita degli edifici," Lotus
15 (1977): 43.
164. A. Rossi, "A, architettura,"
Controspazio 10, no. 4 (1978): 6,
and idem, "Triestee una donna,"
58.
165. Rossi, "Triestee una donna,"
58.
166. Ibid., 54, and idem, "A,
architettura,"6.
f67. Rossi, "La citti analoga:
Tavola," 4-7. The discussion on
the analogous city is very broad and
began before this article: see R. Ni-
colini, "Note su Aldo Rossi," Con-
trospazio6, no. 4 (1974): 48-49;
M. Tafuri, "Ceci n'est pas une
ville," Lotus 13 (1976): 10-13; A.
Cuomo, "Architetturae negativita,"
Controspazio 10, no. 4 (1978): 42-
47; V. Scully, "Postscript:Ideology
in Form," in A Scientific Autobiog-
raphy, 111-16; and F. Dal Co,
assemblage 5
"Rossiand Radical Nostalgia,"Plan 192. Ibid., 34. 219. See Tafuri, The Sphereand
1 (1983): 35ff. the Labyrinth, 267-90; Silvetti,
193. Ibid., 35.
"On Realism in Architecture,"
168. This trial begins with A. 194. Ibid., 37.
1lff.; Morton, "Tendenza-Italian
Rossi, "Les Espaces de la raison," 195. Ibid. Rationalism,"49ff.; Tzonis and Le-
L'Architectured'aujourd'hui190
196. Ibid., 38. faivre, "The NarcissistPhase in Ar-
(1977): 36ff.
chitecture," 53ff.; Libeskind,
169. Rossi, A Scientific Autobiog- 197. Ibid., 38-39. "'Deus ex Machina'/'Machinaex
raphy, 1. 198. Ibid., 39. Deo,'" 2ff.; and Johnson, "What
170. See A. Ehrenzweig, The Psy- 199. Ibid., 40-41. Remains of Man, Aldo Rossi's
Modena Cemetery,"38ff.
choanalysisof Artistic Vision and 200. Ibid., 41.
Hearing (London, 1953), and E. 220. See, for example, P. Eisen-
Kris, Ricerchepsicoanalitiche 201. Ibid.
man, "Note sull'architettura
sull'arte (Turin, 1967). Rossi, 202. Ibid., 42. concettuale: Per una definizione,"
A Scientific Autobiography,1, 5, Casabella 359-60 (1971): 48ff.; K.
203. Ibid.
2, 11. Frampton, "Two or Three Things I
204. Ibid., 46. Know about Them," 315; M. Sco-
171. Rossi offers, as we shall see,
differentpossible "internalsolu- 205. Ibid., 47. lari, "LesApories de l'architecture,"
tions," from analogy to direct L'Architectured'aujourd'hui190
206. Ibid., 49.
explanation, in a sequence and al- (1977): 88ff.; B. Huet, "Formal-
ternation that constitutes the great- 207. Ibid., 51. isme, rdalisme,"L'Architecture
est interpretiveproblem of the text. 208. Ibid., 52. d'aujourd'hui190 (1977): 35ff.;
J. Rykwert,"Classicand Neo-
172. Rossi, A Scientific Autobiog- 209. Ibid., 55.
classic," Oppositions 7 (1976-77):
raphy, 2-3, 6. 39ff.; R. Stern, "At the Edge of
210. Ibid., 57-58, 61.
173. Ibid., 5, 6. Post-Modernism,"Architectural
211. Here the terms refer not only
174. Ibid., 1. Design no. 4 (1977): 275ff.; and P.
to Hirschman, Essays in Trespass-
Eisenman, "Postscript:The Graves
175. Ibid. ing, but also to R. Jakobson,"Two of Modernism,"Oppositions 12
Aspects of Languageand Two (1978): 21ff.
176. Ibid., 2. Types of Aphasic Disturbances,"in
177. Ibid., 3. Selected Writings(The Hague: 221. A. Rossi and C. Braghieri,
"Lascatola delle costruzioni,"Lotus
1971).
178. Ibid., 5. 37 (1983): 67.
212. Rossi, A Scientific Autobiog-
179. Ibid., 8. 222. A. Rossi, II teatro del mondo
raphy, 66.
180. Ibid., 8-11. (Milan, 1981), 12, and A. Rossi,
213. Ibid.
181. Ibid., 11. Architettura/idea,catalogue of the
214. Ibid., 71 (Rossi here quotes XVI Triennale (Florence, 1981),
182. Ibid., 12. from C. Ryle, The Concept of 16.
183. Ibid., 15. Mind). 223. Rossi, Il teatro del mondo, 15.
184. Ibid., 16. 215. Ibid., 75.
224. A. Rossi, "The Blue of the
185. Ibid., 20. 216. Ibid., 78. Sky, Modena Cemetery, 1971 and
1977," ArchitecturalDesign 1-2
186. Ibid., 23. 217. Ibid., 81 (Rossi here quotes
(1982): 39ff.; idem, "Che fare delle
from R. Daumal, Mount Ana-
187. Ibid., 24. vecchie citth?"Hinterland 18
logue).
188. Ibid., 26. (1981): 16ff.; and idem, Introduc-
218. Criticism of the theater began tion to A. Loos, La civilta occiden-
189. Ibid., 25-26. with B. Zevi, "Cosa dimostralo tale (Bologna, 1981).
scandalo genovese del Carlo
190. Ibid., 26-33.
Felice," L'Architettura8-9
191. Ibid., 33-34. (1984): 572.
120
 Olmo

Figure Credits
1, 3. From Alberto Ferlenga, ed.,
Aldo Rossi, Architettura1959-1987
(Milan: Electa, 1987).
2. From Francesco Moschini, ed.,
Aldo Rossi, Progettie disegni 1962-
1979 (Florence: Stiav, 1979).

121