Autobiografia científcica

by Aldo Rossi

Postscript by Vincent Scully

Based on notebooks composed since 1971, Aldo Rossi's memoir intermingles his architectural projects, including discussion of the major literary and artistic influences on his work, with his personal history. His ruminations range from his obsession with theater to his concept of architecture as ritual. The illustrations-photographs, evocative images, as well as a set of drawings of Rossi's major architectural projects prepared particularly for this publicationwere personally selected by the author to augment the text.

Genres: Architecture, Autobiography, Nonfiction, Design

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and product design.
Rossi was born in Milan, Italy. In 1949 he started studying architecture at the Politecnico di Milano where he graduated in 1959. Already in 1955 he started writing for the Casabella magazine, where he became editor between 1959–1964.
Aldo Rossi died in a car accident in September 1997 in Milan.

Aldo Rossi won the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1990. Ada Louise Huxtable, architectural critic and Pritzker juror, has described Rossi as "a poet who happens to be an architect."

Reviews

[Dasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone wise once said, writing a review for this book is like taking a shower with a raincoat on.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

[Federico García · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este es un libro difícil, quizás justificatorio. Un texto en el que el autor, arquitecto, pretende esbozar su trabajo de muchos años.
Lo que refleja una erudición extensa que deja la apología de sus obras al concurso del caos de los recuerdos personales.
Como dice en las páginas finales, al principio se trataba de refundar la disciplina de la arquitectura. En los últimos tiempos el proyecto se transmutó a la búsqueda del objeto definitivo que es la felicidad, el olvido de eso que se ha aprendido con tanto esfuerzo.
El enigma de vivir.

[Andrea Ricci Curbastro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un po' una Pippa mentale, non essendo architetto forse non sono stato in grado di coglierlo fino in fondo. Comunque spunti belli in qua e in là!!

[Douglas Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much in Rossi to get excited about – the use of personal memory as primary material for architecture, the sense of 'poetry' and melancholy, the attempt to use the 'fragment' not as an analytical concept but as a creative strategy, and so on, but it's all hampered by the knowledge that the work itself is just not very good, and further, that it's a way of thinking about architecture that seems impossible now – obviously a rejection of post-war technocratic language, but so devoid of the question of construction that it seems meaningless…

[gøkhan kiyici · Rating 5 out of 5]

mimarlığı unutmak. 🤍

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is less of an autobiography and more a collection of very poetic musings on architecture, written by this iconic Italian architect. I read this for my first semester studio class, but I found myself constantly reminded of why I was an English major in college: so many sentences that are beautiful not for what they describe but for what they themselves are . . . "the stasis of those timeless miracles, to tables set for eternity, drinks never consumed, things which are only themselves."

[Francisco Costa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Texto desconexo, com divagações que são por vezes difíceis de acompanhar. Com algumas passagens poéticas e outras bastante fortes, que faz nexos de causalidade inesperados baseados quase sempre nas memórias, na experiência e sensibilidade pessoal. 100% Autobiográfico, Zero científico. Acompanhado e ilustrado por belíssimas fotografias e desenhos.

[Jennifer Scappettone · Rating 5 out of 5]

rereading, actually, the "original," English-language edition with images.

[T-mere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardly a light-read undertaking but well worth the effort, you won't regret it!