Table Of ContentOPPOSITIONS BOOKS Introduction by Peter Eisenman
Translation by Diane Ghirardo and
Joan Ockman
Revised for the American Edition
by Aldo Rossi and Peter Eisenman
The Architecture
Aldo Rossi
ofthe City
Published for The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies
inthe Fine Arts, Chicago, Illinois, and
The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies,
New York, New York, by
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
First paperback printing, 1984 Othertitles intheOPPOSITIONS OPPOSITIONSBOOKS
BOOKSseries:
Editors
Essays inArchitecturaI Criticism: Peter Eisenrnan
Copyright© 1982by Modem Architecture and KennethFrampton
TheInstitute forArchitecture and
Historical Change
UrbanStudiesand Executive Editor
AlanColquhoun
TheMassachusetts Institute of PrefacebyKennethFrampton JoanOckman
Technology
AScientific Autobiography Managing Editor
AlIrights reserved. Nopart ofthisbook AldoRossi LindsayStammShapiro
maybe reproducedinanyfono orbyany Postscript byVincentScully
means,electronicormechanical,including TransiationbyLawrenceVenuti Assistant Editor
photocopying,recording,orbyany ThomasMellins
informationstorage andretrieval system,
withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe Designer
publisher. MassimoVignelli
LibraryofCongressCataloguingin DesignCoordinator
PublicationData AbigaiiSturges
Rossi,Aldo,1931-
Thearchitecture ofthe city. Production
(Oppositionsbooks) SusanHull
Translationof:L'architettura
dellacitta. Trustees ofthe Institute
"Publishedforthe Graham forArchitecture and Urban Studies
FoundationforAdvancedStudiesin ArmandBartos, Chairman
theFineArts, Chicago,Illinois,and ChariesGwathmey,President
theInstitute forArchitecture and DougiasH.Banker
UrbanStudies, NewYork, RichardF. Barter
NewYork." A.BruceBrackenridge
Includesindex. ColinG.Campbell
1.Cityplanning.2.Architecture. WalterChatham
LEisenrnan,Peter, 1932- Peter D.Eisenman
II. Title. UlrichFranzen
III. Series. Frank O.Gehry
NA9031.R6713711'.481-19382 GeraldD.Hines
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-18101-~(~hc,alk.paper) EliJacobs
978-0-2fl2-()8043-1(pb,alk.paper) PhilipJohnson
EdwardJ. Logue
TypographybyTheOldTyposopherin GeraidM.McCue
Century Expanded. Printed andbound Robert M.Meltzer
inthe UnitedStates ofAmerica. PaulRudoIph
CarIE. Schorske
Frederieke S.Taylor
Couerdrawing:Woodenarmaiure for ihe MariettaTree
constructionofvaults. From Principjdi MassimoVignelli
Architettura Civile,FrancescoMilizia, JohnF. White
1832. Peter Wolf
20 19 18
Contents Editor's Preface vi
Editor's Introduction byPeter Eisenman 3
Introduction to the First American Edition byAldoRossi 12
Introduction: Urban Artifacts and a Theory ofthe City 20
Chapter l:The Structure of Urban Artifacts 28
The Individuality ofUrban Artifacts 29
The Urban Artifact as aWork ofArt 32
TypologicalQuestions 35
Critique ofNaive Functionalism 46
Problems ofClassification 48
The Complexityof Urban Artifacts 55
Monuments and the Theory ofPermanences 57
Chapter 2:Primary Elements and the Concept ofArea 62
The Study Area 63
Residential Districts as Study Areas 65
The IndividuaI Dwelling 70
The TypologicalProblem ofHousing inBerlin 72
Garden City and VilleRadieuse 82
Primary Elements 86
The DynamicofUrban Elements 87
The Ancient City 92
Processes ofTransformation 95
Geography and History: the Human Creation 97
Chapter 3:The Individuality ofUrban Artifacts; Architecture 102
The Locus 103
Architecture as Science 107
Urban Ecologyand Psychology 112
HowUrban Elements BecomeDefined 114
The Roman Forum 119
Monuments; Summary ofthe Critique ofthe Concept ofContext 126
The City as History 127
The Collective Memory 130
Athens 131
Chapter 4:The Evolution of Urban Artifacts 138
The City as Field ofApplicatìon forVarious Forces; Economics 139
The Thesis ofMaurice Halbwachs 141
Further Considerations onthe Nature ofExpropriations 144
Land Ownership 152
The Housing Problem 155
The Urban Scale 158
Politics as Choice 161
Preface tothe Second Italian Edition 164
Introduction tothe Portuguese Edition 168
Comment onthe German Edition 178
Notes 180
Figure Credits and Publishing History ofThe Architecture ofthe City 196
Index ofNames 198
Editor's Preface Thetradition ofthearchitect-writeriswellprecedentedin thehistory of
architectureinltaly. From theRenaissance tothenineteenthcentury, iiwas
characteristicofcertainarchitectstopresenttheirideasin asystematic
treatise.BasedonthemodelojVitruvius, Alberti producedtheRenaissance
modelfor suchwriting. Thiswasjollowed bytreatises likethoseofSerlio and
Palladio. Serlioproducedaseriesojvolumes whichconstituteahandbookof
architecture,starting withancient buildingandincluding speculationsabout
unbuiltjuture work. Theseunbuilt designs, whichweretobecomemore
important than hismodestbuiltwork,arenotsomuch significantin terms of
specificprojects, buiarerathermodelswhichbegintoelaboratemany ofihe
types towhichPalladiowouldrefer.Palladiowrotethe"QuattroLibri"ten
yearsbeforehisdeath,asakind ofrésuméofhiscareer.Thesebookscontain
theredrawingofhisprojectsand buildings, therebyservingasmuch asa
recordofhis intentions asojhis actualwork. WhetherdrawingRoman ruins
orredrawinghisownprojects,Palladiowasprimarily interestedin the
derivation, invention, andultimately thedistortion ojtypesjrom existing
models. Thus theideaojthe interrelationship ojdrawing and writing became
part ofanarchitectural tradition.
This tradition hascontinuedin Italy up tothepresentcentury. Thewritings
ofScamozzi, Milizia, andLodoli, nottomention themorerecentwritings and
designsojGiuseppe Pagano,certainly musi beseenasits bearers,as, indeed,
musi Aldo Rossi's "TheArchitecture oftheCity." Tounderstand Rossi's
archiieciure, it isalsonecessarytounderstand his writings andhisdrawings.
Yet "TheArchitecture oftheCity" isalsoasignificant departurejrom past
models. Thisisbecause,whilepurportingtobeascientifictheory,amodern-day
equivalentojthe Renaissance treatise,iiisonanother levelaunique
anticipation ofRossi's subsequeniarchitecture.
Thetaskojthis prejace,then, istolocatethis bookfor anAmerican audience
notonly in itsowntradition, in thecontextofltalian theoreticalwritings by
architects,buialsointhemorecontemporarycontextofltaly in the1960sand
1970s.Thefirst editionojthis book,takenjrom Rossi's lecturesand notes,
appearedin1966during thetraumatic yearsofstudent discontentasa
polemicalcritiqueoftheModernMovementposition onthecity. A second
Italian editionappearedin 1970withanewintroduction. Thebookwasthen
translated intoSpanish, German, andPoriuqueseeditions. Finally, in 1978,
ajourth ltalian editionappearedwith newillustrations. Toreissueitnow, in
itsfirst English-language edition, withali ofthesupplementary materialthat
ithasacquiredduring itssuccessivepublications, is torecognizeiheunique
culturalcontextwithin whichitwasfirst producedandcontinued todevelop;
all ojthis material ispartofthebook'shistory. In this way, thebookstands as
asingular andparallel recordofideasthatRossi hasbeendevelopingin both
drawingand otherwriting overthelastfifleen years. As such, itisinitselj an
"analogousartijact."
In itsAmerican edition, "TheArchitecture ojthe City" isnotsomuch aliteral
transcription ojthe originalasacarejullyrevisededition-revised soasto
providethestyle andfiavor ojthe originalwithoutencumberingit withsome
ojthe rhetoricalandrepetitivepassageswhicharepart ojthe originaltext.
Theratheracademicstyle ajpresentation in theltalian occasionallymakes
jor acertain stiltedness inEnglish, andinsuehcaseswehaveprejerredtoopt
jor clarity and simplicity.
My own introduction whichfollows isin certain ways not only about this
book, but also about the Rossi that this book anticipates. In this sense, it isa
kind ofanalogous writing ofRossi's ideas. Like his analogous drawings, and
his writings which also can beseen as analoqous instruments, itattempts to
collapse and dislocate the time and place ofthe evolution ofRossi's ideas. For
this reason, iiis takenfrom a reading ofhis later writings, including "A
Scientific Autobiography, "andfrom many private discussions with him, as
much asfrom the text at hand. Like thefourth Italian edition, which brought
together the preceding pieces of the book's history, all ofwhich themselves had
separate memories, this book is similarly, and toan even greaterdegree, a
"collective" artifact. My own introduction attempts toenter into this memory
and in this sense serves as akind ofanalogy ofan analogy, acreation ofyet
another artifact with its own history and memory. It seeks in this way to
illustrate the analogous current which washes back andforth from drawing to
drawing, andfrom writing towriting, in Rossi's work.
P.E.
-
· .. the reliej and design of structures appears more clearly when content, Editor's Introduction
which is the living energy of meaning, is neutralized, somewhat like thear
chitecture of an uninhabited ordesertedcity, reducedtoits skeleton bysome The Houses of Memory:
catastropheofnature orart.A citynolongerinhabited,notsimply leftbehind, The Texts ofAnalogy
but haunted bymeaning and culture, this state of beinghaunted, whichkeeps
thecityjrom returning tonature . . .
Jacques Derrida
Writing andDifference
The image onthe cover ofthe fourth Italian edition ofAldo Rossi's L'Architet
tura dellacittàsummarizes incondensed form not onlythe ambivalent nature of
Rossi's architectural work, but also the intrinsic problem ofits relationship to
the idea ofcity which isproposed bythis book. This image, ahorizontal section of
the Mausoleum ofHadrian inthe Castel Sant'Angelo inRome, reads asaspiral.
The spiraI isassociated with the form ofthe labyrinth, aconstruction which, ac
cording to classical myth, was the invention ofDaedalus. Daedalus, as the only
architect ofmythology and the supposed inventor ofmany "wondrous" works of
architecture, has become for history the symbol par excellence ofthe humanist
architect. As such, the labyrinth, Daedalus's creation, can be considered
emblematic ofa humanist condition ofarchitecture. But this is not the spiral's
onlymeaning. Asanunfolding path orroute, the spiral has alsobeen interpreted
asapsychological figure, the symbol ofaprocess oftransformation. Thus, weare
obliged to interpret Rossi's use ofthe image onthe cover ofhis bookintwo ways:
first, in terms ofthe spiral as amausoleum, as representing a symbolic pIace of
death, inthis case--even ifunconsciously onhispart-that ofhumanism; and at
the same time, in terms of the spiral as labyrinth, as representing a pIace of
transformation.
The spiral has afurther, more personal meaning forRossi. Itsymbolizes hisown
rite of passage, his role as part of a generation progressively more distanced
from the positivism ofmodern architecture bythe collapse ofhistorical time and
left drifting into anuncertain presento While this bookinmany ways isacritique
ofthe Modern Movement, it nevertheless reflects an ambivalence with respect
to modernism. It suggests Rossi's own uncertainty as much with the generai
ideology ofmodernism aswith the failure ofthe specificaspirations ofmodern ar
chitecture. Rossi's anxiety with respect to modernism isthus refracted through
his sympathy with its very concerns. It was, after all, modernism which focused
onthe city as one ofarchitecture's centrai problems. Prior to modernism, cities
were thought to have evolved over time through aprocess which was an imita
tion ofnaturallaw. But inthe view ofthe polemicists ofthe Modern Movement,
this natural time had run out, and inits piace succeeded the time ofhistoricism.
For the architects ofthe early twentieth century, the appropriateness ofthe act
ofintervening clinically inthe city's historical and natural evolution was beyond
questiono Supported by the enormous moral impetus ofsocial and technological
necessity (which had replaced the model ofnatural evolution), theyattempted
from the stronghold oftheir "castle ofpurity' to storm the bastion ofevils iden
tifiedwith the nineteenth-century city. Tothem the stakes appeared higher than
they had ever been. In this heroic climate ofmodernism the city ofmodern ar
chitecture, supposedly born out ofarupture ofhistory, was progressively pro
pelled by that very history toward the vision ofa sanitized utopia.
The perceived failure of modern architecture to realize this utopia-either to
supersede the nineteenth-century city or to mitigate its destruction after the
3
...
la Horizontal section of ihe
Mausoleum ofHadrian, built135-139
A.D., latertransjormed into the
CastelSant'Angelo.
1bDrawingofalabyrinth byDom
Nicolas deRély, 1611, basedonthe
pavingpattern onihefloor ofAmiens
Cathedral. Thisdesign,executedin
1288,wasknown asthe"Maison
Dédalus"orHouseofDaedalus.
bombings ofthe Second World War-became the primary condition confronting
the architects of a generation which matured in the early 1960s.Their disillu
sionment and anger were in direct proportion to modern architecture's failure,
as much with its unrealized aspirations-its castle ofpurity-as with their own
sense ofloss and the impossibility ofreturn; these feelings were directed at the
heroic fathers ofmodern architecture, both for having been and also for having
failed. For Rossi's generation it was no longer possible to be a hero, nolonger
possible to be anidealist; the potential forsuch memories and fantasies had been
taken away forever. Noother generation had to folIowsuch asense ofexpecta
tion with such a sense of loss. Cynicism and pessimism carne to fìllthe void
created by the loss ofhope.
Now letus ... supposethatRome isnota human habitation butapsychical
The Texts of Analogy
entity withasimilarly longandcopiouspast-an entity, thatistosay,inwhich
nothingthathasoncecomeintoexistencewillhavepassedawayandalttheear
lierphasesofdevelopmentcontinue toexist alongsidethelatestone.... If we
want torepresenthistoricalsequenceinspatial terms wecanonlydoit byjux
taposition in space:thesame spacecannothavetwodifferent contents.... It
showsushowfar wearefrom mastering thecharacteristicsofmentallife byrep-
resentingtheminpictorialterms.
Sigmund Freud
Civilization andIts Discontents
TheArchitecture of theCityalong with allofRossi's production isan attempt to
build a different kind ofcastle from that ofthe moderns. Itisan elaborate scaf
folderected for and by someone who can nolonger climbits steps to die ahero's
death. Proposing an other architecture, an other architect, and most impor
tantly, an otherprocess for their understanding, it can be seen as an attempt to
break not only from the traditional humanist definition ofthe relationship ofob
ject and subject, but also from the more recent modernist one. Modernism pro
posed anew interpretation ofthe subject whichwas never fulfilledbymodern ar
chitecture; in this respect modern architecture can be seen as simply an exten
sion of nineteenth-century functionalism. Rossi's new construct begins as a
critique ofthe city ofmodern architecture and from this goes on to propose an
other object.
The otherobject, the architecture ofthe book's title, isnowdefined intwo ways:
as the ultimate and verifiable data within the real city, and as an autonomous
structure. But this data isnot gathered and applied with the reductive scientisrr
used by the proponents of the Modern Movement city, but rather through ~
more complex rationalism provided by urban geography, economics, and above
all history. Nor is its autonomy entirely that ofmodernism, ofthe discipline o
architecture in itself. Rather, it resides in architecture's specific processes anc
its built reality.
This twofold idea ofthe city asultimate data-an archaeological artifact-and o
the city asautonomous structure not onlycharacterizes the new city asanobject
but more importantly, and perhaps inadvertently, redefines its subject-the ar
chitect himself. As opposed to the humanist architect ofthe sixteenth century
and the functionalist architect ofthe twentieth century, Rossi's architect wouk
seem to be an unheroic, autonomous researcher-much like his psychoanalys
counterpart who issimilarly distanced from the object ofhis analysis and whon·
4
g longer believes inscience or progresso However, not surprisingly, this redefini
l- tion ofthe architect as a neutral subject isproblematico
,
"
n Whereas the humanist conception attempted an integration ofsubject apd ob
e ject, the modernist conception polemically attempted their separation. The
g problematic nature ofthe practice ofmodern architecture with respect to the
r theory ofmodernism hasto doprecisely with its inability to effect this separation
n and thus its contamination with imperatives from the humanist conception.
Rossi intuitively understands this problem; but hecannot facethe consequences
I-
d oftaking onthe unrealized program ofmodernism. Therefore, his new formula
tion focuses ona mediating element: the process ofthe work. Ifthe subject and
the object are to be independent, it is now the process, previously considered
neutral, which must assume the forces which formerly were contained in the
subject and the object. Into this new idea ofprocess Rossi reintroduces the ele
l ments ofhistory and typology, but not asanostalgia fornarrative orareductive
I-z, scientism. Rather, history becomes analogous to a "skeleton" whose condition
._
serves as ameasure oftime and, inturn, ismeasured bytime. It isthis skeleton
e which bears the imprint ofthe actions that have taken place andwilltake pIacein
the city. For Rossi, architecture's history lies inits material; and it isthis mate
'-
t riaIwhich becomes the object ofanalysis-the city. Typology, onthe other hand,
,- becomes the instrument, the "apparatus"-to borrow a term which Rossi will
later use inhisScientific Autobiography-oftime's measurement; itattempts to
be both logical and scientificoThe skeleton and its measuring apparatus become
the process and ultimately the object ofthe autonomous researcher. Historyand
type, as components parts ofresearch, allow for transformations ofthemselves
o which are "prearranged but still unforeseeable."
F
s The skeleton, an image which also appears in Rossi's Scientific Autobiography,
is a particularly useful analogue for this idea ofcity. For the skeleton links the
'-
o city to history. Itis a history which is limited to the historiographical act-to a
pure knowledge ofthe past, without the historicizing imperative to determine
)
the future. For Rossi, historicism, the modernist critique ofhistory, isanimped
)-
iment to invention. Historicism deals in causes or imperati ves while history fo
'-
cuses oneffects or facts. The skeleton thus provides an analogue for Rossi's un
l
a derstanding ofhistory, forit isat once astructure and aruin, arecord ofevents
n and a record oftime, and inthis sense a statement offacts and not causes. But
these are not its onlyattributes. For it isalso an object that canbeused to study
its ownstructure. This structure has two aspects: one isits ownabstract signifi
~: canee; the other isthe precise nature ofits individuaI parts. The latter isofpar
s ticular importance because the mere study ofstructure--ofthe vertebrae ofthe
n skeleton-is far too generaI for Rossi. Any generalized framework acts as a
a mesh which always allows the most important parts to pass through-in this
e case, the city's most singular elements and those which give it its specificity.
)f
d Thus, the skeleton, which may ononelevel becompared to the urban plan, while
a generaI structure ofparts, is also a material artifact in itself: a collective ar
tifact. The skeleton's nature as a collective artifact allows us to understand
Rossi's metaphor ofthe city asagiant man-made house, amacrocosm ofthe indi
viduaI house ofmanoHere the dissolution ofscale becomes centraI to the argu
ment, as will be seen. This giant house comes into being through a double pro
'-
,, cessoOneprocess isthat ofproduction, inthe sense ofthe city asawork ofman
d ufaiu: (manufacture), an object literally made by the hands ofmen; the second
.t process is that oftime, which ultimately produces an autonomous artifact. The
o first process assumes a time which is only that ofmanufacture-a time with no
5
