About Buildings + Cities 10 – Aldo Rossi's 'The Architecture of the City' – Interrupted Destiny
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Dec 6, 2016 Dive into Aldo Rossi's influential 1966 work, where nostalgia and urban memory converge. Discover how Rossi critiques functional zoning, likening it to a game of SimCity. Explore the compelling concept of urban artefacts that reflect a city's identity. Unpack his thoughts on monuments, primary elements, and their haunting presence in urban landscapes. Rossi's blend of scientific ambition and emotional depth reveals the complexities of contemporary urban living, challenging how we understand architecture and its impact on our environment.
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Book's Image Vs. Text
- Rossi's book resists simple impressions; it's dense, academic, and full of evocative images that students often only skim for pictures.
- Luke Jones and George Gingell found the text more complex and different from its mythic reputation than they'd expected.
Against Functionalist Zoning
- Rossi critiques the functionalist city that separates uses into isolated zones and treats history as an obstacle to optimisation.
- He proposes a different analytical approach that emphasises persistence, memory, and architectural form shaping urban life.
Architecture As Collective Memory
- Rossi defines the city as made of architecture where buildings' forms persist and carry memory across time.
- He argues function changes but form endures, shaping urban continuity and identity.
