L'architettura della città

by Aldo Rossi

Based on notebooks composed since 1971, Aldo Rossi's lyrical and erudite memoir intermingles his architectural projects, including discussion of the major literary and artistic influences on his work, with his personal history. Illustrated with photographs and drawings.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Urbanism, Design, Art, Cities, Urban Studies

253 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

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

[Mauro · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Così la complessa struttura della città sorge da un discorso i cui termini di riferimento possono sembrare scarsi. Forse è esattamente come le leggi che regolano ul destino dei singoli uomini; vi è in ogni biografia motivo sufficiente di interesse sebbene ogni biografia sia comorsa tra la nascita e la morte”

Larchitettura della città è un trattato che analizza lo sciluppo dello spazio urbano partendo dai “fatti urbani” per poi analizzare gli elementi urbani come aree, quartieri, residenze. Si imdaga il rapporto situazione locale e lemcostruzioni che sono in wuel luogo. Si analizzano p, criticamente, le teorie di Marcel Pöete, Pierre LavedanPalladio, Violet-Le -Duc, Maurice Halbwachs, Hans Bernoulli ed altri. Si riportano le teorie analizzate a casi pratici attraverso l’esempio dello sviluppo di alcune citta.
Questo libro fornisce alcuni strumenti che aiutano a comprendere lo sviluppo urbano e architettonico visto sotto molteplici punti di vista. Smonta alcune teorie “rigide” proprio perché non consentono una lettura complessiva dei fenomeni ma si basano su alcune specificità (come demografia, economia, ecc).
La lettura non è propriamente semplice e scorrevole per chi è digiuno della disciplina e del vocabolario. Trattandosi di un trattato è ovvio che sia così. Per me è stato piacevole tornare a leggere di questi argomenti e l’ho trovato molto interessante e ricco di spunti di riflessione. Alcuni raggionamenti appaiono un po’ superati, legati al secolo scorso, ma è lo stesso Aldo Rossi a ribadire che la sua è una prima analisi da sviluppare e approfondire.

[Mina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essential for architectural theory - indisputably a classic. However (and I'm not sure if this is a Rossi thing or a translators thing), there is a lot of unnecessary content that's beating a dead horse with repetition. This was a Defoe for me; read it because I had to, but it was a painstakingly awful chore.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the ideas that this book explores are really very interesting: that part of the value of architecture comes from its temporal (rather than purely spatial) qualities, that architecture's role in the city relates to its form rather than just its function, that cities are an embodiment of collective memory, and that the development of cities follows organically from certain knowable factors.

But man, it's a slog to read. The writing style is totally opaque, and he assumes a wide variety of knowledge on the part of his readers; getting through many sections felt like putting together a puzzle with a bunch of the pieces missing. There's good stuff in there, but overall, this isn't a book I'm eager to revisit.

[Matteo · Rating 2 out of 5]

"L'architettura della città" è considerato un classico e, in quanto tale, imperfettibile. Perciò, la mia recensione potrebbe anche finire qui.
Ma, d'altra parte, sono considerate allo stesso modo anche quelle sedie di Aldo Rossi che, dopo vent'anni di quotidiana esperienza personale, mi sento in pieno diritto di definire scomodissime.
Quindi vedrò di sbilanciarmi anche sul libro in questione.

Il testo consiste, sostanzialemente, in Rossi che espone teorie contrastanti e poi le confuta, talvolta nella loro totalità, talvolta solo in parte. Il risultato è un lettore disorientato che tenta di afferrare una linea di pensiero generale che l'autore sembra far di tutto per nascondere.

[Sandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it was a fascinating read, I found some parts were dry and not clear enough. I wonder if Italian-speaking readers who happened to read both the original and English translation ones would agree with me? Because then it's probably the translation, or just me...

[Hajrarara]

I thought the translation to english left things to be desired. It's not that it was unclear, but most sentences were just plain unnecessary complicated.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Italian architect Aldo Rossi details his notion of the built city as a set of collective memories that embody a dimension of time. Classic material!!

[Carolina Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

(saga "estou a escrever a tese"); útil na compreensão mais alargada do estudo da cidade, não como uma mera leitura física da alteração dos factos urbanos na cidade; expondo nos vários capítulos reflexões sobre outras teorias que venham acrescentar à primeira. Apoia-se em vários estudos de outros autores; mas por vezes deixa-os a meio; contudo, é certamente um livro que nos leva a outras leituras e nos abre portas para outros autores. Útil.

[Giu :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Il bro dice molte cose e raccoglie opinioni molto interessanti; peccato per lo stile arzigogolato e spesso dispersivo :’)

[Rizky S · Rating 3 out of 5]

offer different dimension to see a city. not only from utilitarian view like le Corbusier's Radiant City, but from another dimension like socio-historical perspective. Rossi idea about collective memory, urban artefacts, city's permanence are very profound

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential to architectural theory.

[Saiid Abdul Baqi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aldo Rossi provides a deep new "post-modern" perspective of the city as a diverse and collective human feat which refutes Le Corbusier's view of the city from the mere standpoint of urban planning.

[Pablo Lopes · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro é uma etapa de uma tese acadêmica, baseada na pesquisa de uma escola de geógrafos franceses do começo do século XX. Ele desenvolve a ideia de uma análise da cidade baseada no estudo dos fatos urbanos e das áreas-residências, um estudo que foca na história, na economia, nos planos, executados ou não, que orientaram a conformação da cidade. Como teoria de projeto parece ser algo ainda esboçado. Só que aí vêm o prefácio (no final do livro, depois das notas). Neste prefácio, escrito anos depois, o autor descreve a evolução da pesquisa e busca delinear leis gerais que podem orientar o processo de projeto. Estas leis são baseadas em profundos estudos tipológicos, que o autor exemplifica com o estudo que ele mesmo efetuou das residências milanesas. A tipologia tem seu valor como algo que evoluiu ao longo de muitos anos, quase como um organismo que lentamente desenvolve uma forma optimal para seu contexto. O projeto seria a manipulaçao desta tipologia, como quando Palladio adapta a tipologia da planta central das igrejas e utiliza-a para residências.

[Landon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how Rossi laid out his argument on how architecture tells the city's history as well as creates its fabric. The Architecture of the City is the principal theoretical text by Aldo Rossi, and constituted one of the first attempts to re-examine the function of architecture within its urban context, after the reductive theories of CIAM. This book wasn't easy to read most of the time, but it's really not for college undergraduates, but if you have to read it for a class you have no choice. The lessons are still valid and timely nevertheless, and should be remembered by architects, at a time when other theorists celebrate the 'dissolution' of cities under the momentary glare of a globalized world.

[Matias Infeld Caballier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fundamental book for architects of all kind.
Its notion of “urban artifacts” and “locus” shifts attention from modernist tabula rasa to the weight of history, typology, and form. From an architect’s perspective, this is both liberating and frustrating—liberating in the way it legitimizes form and memory as design tools, frustrating because its abstractions resist direct application in practice. Yet, reading Rossi today, one finds a reminder that cities endure not through novelty but through continuity, and that our task is not only to solve technical problems but also to inscribe meaning into the urban fabric.

[Yifei Zhang · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can smell Nietzsche in this book… The language is accessible but very opaque, which I suspect has something to do with the translation. I’m having a very hard time projecting his theory outside of Europe (especially hard in Houston TX), and his examples almost unexceptionally precede 20th century. The “disinterested” urban researcher eventually becomes a self-proclaimed hero transcending the vicissitude of urban history, operating in formal purity and impervious to criticism of ethics and politics. Rossi anticipates many criticism in his book but he never offered any satisfactory rebuttal.

[Adam Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read from an interesting thinker. Rossi deals with the subject of the transformation of cities over time as older buildings, blocks, and entire cities change and adapt to new ways of thought, leaving the need to address how we understand what should be valued and continued in as life moves on.

[SunKheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a new student about architecture so I want to know a lot about this subject,and I want to read this book much but in my country I don’t know where or how I buy this book.Eventhough just have this way that I can read this book. The Architecture Of The City.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se divide en cuatro partes el libro, donde estudia diferentes pensamientos sobre el espacio y las estructuras arquitectónicas. Aldo Rossi, un italiano arquitecto, urbanista, diseñador, profesor y guionista nos da la premisa de que la ciudad no puede concebirse sin su historia.

[Helena del Río · Rating 2 out of 5]

No he sido capaz de terminarlo. Es una opinión un tanto impopular, pero para mí es una lectura muy densa y en determinados, puntos algo confusa. Le intentaré dar una oportunidad más adelante dada la importancia del libro.

[Ahmad Afana · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book on the typology thinking, should be followed by copy-paste

[Leandro Llorente · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with Aldo Rossi's expression of form, axis and scale.

[sleepy · Rating 5 out of 5]

validation for the beauty of unorganized, organic cities? we love to see it. especially loved the insight on naive functionalism and the concept of areas.

the language made it hard to read but there were a lot of poetic quotes from the book that i love. i’m going to put it here for future reference:

“A city may change its faces even in the course of one man’s life, it’s original references ceasing to exist. As Baudelaire wrote, “The old Paris is no more; the form of a city changes more quickly, alas, than the heart of a mortal.” We look upon the houses of our childhood as unbelievably old, and often the city erases our memory as it changes”


“The union between past and the future exists in the very idea of the city - that it flows through in the same way that memory flows through the life of a person.”


“Every city has individual personalities, every city possesses a personal soul formed of the traditions and living feelings as well unresolved aspirations.”

[Alex Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well presented urban theory. Many images and a clear line of Argumentation.

[Julia]

very interesting topics about the city and its possible development. Specially the facts about how it afects the users, the ppl

[Clara Cart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concepts en théorie de l’architecture très importants, mais telleeeeement dûr à lire! Super dense et académique, plein de jargon, etc.
Pas très accessible au grand public:(

[Clark Hulse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating, sometimes visionary essay that has shaped architectural thinking over the past 40 years.

[Risto Pyykkö]

In so many ways a product of its time half a century ago.