Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who was recognised internationally for his contributions to architecture, academia, architectural theory, as well as furniture and product design. Rossi was one of the leading proponents of the postmodern movement. He was the first Italian recipient of the Pritzker Prize for architecture.
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Early life
He was born in Milan, Italy. After early education by the Somascan Religious Order and then at Alessandro Volta College in Lecco in 1949, he went to the school of architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. His thesis advisor was Piero Portaluppi, and he graduated in 1958.
In 1955, he started writing for, and from 1959 was one of the editors of, the architectural magazine Casabella-Continuità, with the editor-in-chief Ernesto Nathan Rogers. Rossi left in 1964 when the chief editorship went to Gian Antonio Bernasconi. Rossi went on to work for Società magazine and Il_contemporaneo, making him one of the most active participants in the fervent cultural debate of the time.
His early articles cover architects such as Alessandro Antonelli, Mario Ridolfi, Auguste Perret and Emil Kaufmann, and much of this material became part of his second book, Scritti scelti sull'architettura e la città 1956–1972 (Selected writings on architecture and the city from 1956 to 1972). He married the Swiss actress Sonia Gessner, who introduced him to the world of film and theatre. Culture and his family became central to his life. His son Fausto was active in filmmaking both in front of and behind the camera. His daughter Vera was involved with theatre.
Career
He began his professional career at the studio of Ignazio Gardella in 1956, moving on to the studio of Marco Zanuso. In 1963, he also began teaching, firstly as an assistant to Ludovico Quaroni (1963) at the school of urban planning in Arezzo, then to Carlo Aymonino at the Institute of Architecture in Venice. In 1965, he was appointed lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Milan, and the following year he published The Architecture of the City, which soon became a classic of architectural literature.
His professional career, initially dedicated to architectural theory and small building work, took a huge leap forward when Aymonino allowed Rossi to design part of the Monte Amiata complex in the Gallaratese quarter of Milan. In 1971, he won the design competition for the extension of the San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena, which made him internationally famous. The work was representative of Rossi's repetitive postmodernist design, but was also representative of a common objection to Rossi's work: that it focused too much on "monumental collectivity" over individualism.
After suspension from teaching in Italy in those politically troubled times, he moved to ETH Zurich, occupying the chair in architectural design from 1971 to 1975.
In 1973, he was director of the International Architecture Section at the XV Milan Triennial Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Modern Architecture, where he presented, among others, his student Arduino Cantafora. Rossi's design ideas for the exhibition are explained in the International Architecture Catalogue and in a 16mm documentary Ornament and crime directed by Luigi Durissi and produced along with Gianni Braghieri and Franco Raggi. In 1975, Rossi returned to the teaching profession in Italy, teaching architectural composition in Venice.
In 1979, he was made a member of the prestigious Academy of Saint Luke. Meanwhile, there was international interest in his skills. He taught at several universities in the United States, including Cooper Union in New York City and Cornell University in Ithaca (New York State). At Cornell, he participated in the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies joint venture with New York's Museum of Modern Art, travelling to China and Hong Kong and attending conferences in South America.
Work
His earliest works of the 1960s were mostly theoretical and displayed a simultaneous influence of 1920s Italian modernism (see Giuseppe Terragni), classicist influences of Viennese architect Adolf Loos, and the reflections of the painter Giorgio de Chirico. A trip to the Soviet Union to study Stalinist architecture also left a marked impression.
In his writings, Rossi criticized the lack of understanding of the city in current architectural practice. He argued that a city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of particular interest are urban artefacts that withstand the passage of time. Rossi held that the city remembers its past (our "collective memory"), and that we use that memory through monuments; that is, monuments give structure to the city. Inspired by the persistence of Europe's ancient cities, Rossi strove to create similar structures immune to obsolescence.
He became extremely influential in the late 1970s and 1980s, as his body of built work expanded and his theories were promoted in his books The Architecture of the City (L'architettura della città, 1966) and A Scientific Autobiography (Autobiografia scientifica, 1981). The largest of Rossi's projects in terms of scale was the San Cataldo Cemetery, in Modena, Italy, which began in 1971, but is yet to be completed. Rossi referred to it as a "city of the dead".
The distinctive independence of his buildings is reflected in the micro-architectures of the products designed by Rossi. In the 1980s, Rossi designed stainless steel cafetières and other products for Alessi, Pirelli, and others.
Exhibits
For the Venice Biennale in 1980, Rossi designed a floating Teatro del Mondo that seated 250 people. For the Venice Biennale in 1984, he designed a triumphal arch at the entrance to the exhibition site. In 2006, two pylons based on an original 1989 design by Aldo Rossi were erected in front of the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht by the Delft architectural firm Ufo Architecten. The MAXXI museum in Rome staged a retrospective titled Aldo Rossi, The Architect and the Cities in 2021.
Awards
Aldo Rossi won the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1990. Ada Louise Huxtable, an architectural critic and Pritzker juror, has described Rossi as "a poet who happens to be an architect."
Architecture
1960 Villa ai Ronchi in Versilia
1962 Competition for the Monument to the Resistance in Cuneo
1964 Competition for the new Paganini theatre and Piazza della Pilotta in Parma
1964 Bridge for the Triennale in Milan
1965 Monumental fountain at Segrate
1966 Competition for the district of San Rocco in Monza
1967–1974 Monte Amiata complex, Gallaratese Quarter, Milan, with Carlo Aymonino
1968 Design for the town hall in Scandicci
1971–1984 Ossuary and the Cemetery of San Cataldo in Modena
1972 Design for City Hall Muggiò
1972 Primary school in Fagnano Olona
1973 Documentary movie "Ornament and crime" for the Triennale in Milan
1974 Design for the regional council headquarters and for a student residence in Trieste
1976 Design for a student residence in Chieti
1977 Design for a business centre in Florence
1977 Single-family homes in Mozzo
1978 Teatrino scientifico
1979 Apartments in Südliche Friedrichstadt for the exhibition IBA 84 in West Berlin, Germany
Product design
In addition to architecture, Rossi created product designs, including:
1982 The Conical coffee maker and kettle for Alessi
1983 Teatro chair for Molteni Group with the collaboration of Luca Meda;
1987 Milan chair for Molteni Group;
1988 La Cupola coffee maker for Alessi;
1988 Il Conico tea kettle for Alessi;
1989 Paris chair for Unifor, now part of Molteni Group;
1989 Decartes bookshelf for Unifor, now part of Molteni Group;
1989 Consiglio table for Unifor, now part of Molteni Group;
1989 Moment clock for Alessi.
Publications
L'architettura della città (The Architecture of the City), Padua: Marsilio 1966.
Scritti scelti sull'architettura e la città: 1956–1972 (Selected Writings on architecture and the city: 1956–1972), edited by R. Bonicalzi, Milan: ULC, 1975.
Autobiografia scientifica (A scientific autobiography), Parma: Practices, 1990.