The Architecture of the City

by Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman (Introduction)

Overview

Aldo Rossi was a practicing architect and leader of the Italian architectural movement La Tendenza and one of the most influential theorists of the twentieth century. The Architecture of the City is his major work of architectural and urban theory. In part a protest against functionalism and the Modern Movement, in part an attempt to restore the craft of architecture to its position as the only valid object of architectural study, and in part an analysis of the rules and forms of the city's construction, the book has become immensely popular among architects and design students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262680431
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/13/1984
Series:	Oppositions Books
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	8.38(w) x 9.75(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect and architecture theorist and the author of The Architecture of the City (MIT Press, 1984) and other books. He was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1990.

Joan Ockman is an architecture educator, historian, writer, and editor. Among the books she has edited are Architecture Culture 1943–1968, The Pragmatist Imagination, and Out of Ground Zero.

Table of Contents

Editor's Prface
Editor's Introduction by Peter Eisenman
Introduction to the First American Edition by Aldo Rossi
Introduction: Urban Artifacts and a Theory of the City
Chapter 1: The Structure of Urban Artifacts
The Individuality of Urban Artifacts
The Urban Artifact as a Work of Art
Typological Questions
Critique of Naive Functionalism
Problems of Classification
The CompleXity of Urban Artifacts
Monuments and the Theory of Permanences
Chapter 2: Primary Elements and the Concept of Area
The Study Area
Residential Districts as Study Areas
The Individual Dwelling
The Typological Problem of Housing in Berlin
Garden City and Ville Radieuse
Primary Elements
The Dynamic of Urban Elements
The Ancient City
Processes of Transformation
Geography and History: the Human Creation
Chapter 3: The Individuality of Urban Artifacts;
Architecture
The Locus
Architecture as Science
Urban Ecology and Psychology
How Urban Elements Become Defined
The Roman Forum
Monuments; Summary of the Critique of the Concept of ConteXt
The City as History
The Collective Memory
Athens
Chapter 4: The Evolution of Urban Artifacts
The City as Field of Application for Various Forces; Economics
The Thesis of Maurice Halbwachs
Further Considerations on the Nature of EXpropriations
Land Ownership
The Housing Problem
The Urban Scale
Politics as Choice
Preface to the Second Italian Edition
Introduction to the Portuguese Edition
Comment on the German Edition
Notes
Figure Credits and Publishing History of The Architecture of the
City
IndeX of Names

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Written 17 years ago, at a time when the Italian student movement had just begun and interdisciplinary design methodologies enjoyed popularity, [ The Architecture of the City] was one of the first major reassessments of the Modern Movement. In contrast to RobertVenturi"s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture , appearing in the same year, Rossi"s critique focuses not on the sterility of forms or the rejection of stylistic imagery in modern architecture, but rather, as the title suggests, on the neglect and destruction of the"city, the repository of "the collective memory of man."... Perhaps most important to Americans, who face a resurgence of idiosyncratic and highly personal designs, is Rossi"s emphasis on the collective, the public realm. He reminds us that individual reputations and accomplishments are less important that our cities themselves." Mary McLeod , Design Book Review

Mary McLeod

Written 17 years ago, at a time when the Italian student movement had just begun and interdisciplinary design methodologies enjoyed popularity, [ The Architecture of the City ] was one of the first major reassessments of the Modern Movement. In contrast to Robert Venturi"s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, appearing in the same year, Rossi"s critique focuses not on the sterility of forms or the rejection of stylistic imagery in modern architecture, but rather, as the title suggests, on the neglect and destruction of the" city, the repository of "the collective memory of man." Perhaps most important to Americans, who face a resurgence of idiosyncratic and highly personal designs, is Rossi's emphasis on the collective, the public realm. He reminds us that individual reputations and accomplishments are less important that our cities themselves

Editorial Reviews

Written 17 years ago, at a time when the Italian student movement had just begun and interdisciplinary design methodologies enjoyed popularity, [The Architecture of the City ] was one of the first major reassessments of the Modern Movement. In contrast to Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, appearing in the same year, Rossi's critique focuses not on the sterility of forms or the rejection of stylistic imagery in modern architecture, but rather, as the title suggests, on the neglect and destruction of the city, the repository of 'the collective memory of man.' Perhaps most important to Americans, who face a resurgence of idiosyncratic and highly personal designs, is Rossi's emphasis on the collective, the public realm. He reminds us that individual reputations and accomplishments are less important than our cities themselves.—Mary McLeod , Design Book Review—

From the Publisher

Written 17 years ago, at a time when the Italian student movement had just begun and interdisciplinary design methodologies enjoyed popularity, [The Architecture of the City ] was one of the first major reassessments of the Modern Movement. In contrast to Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, appearing in the same year, Rossi's critique focuses not on the sterility of forms or the rejection of stylistic imagery in modern architecture, but rather, as the title suggests, on the neglect and destruction of the city, the repository of 'the collective memory of man.' Perhaps most important to Americans, who face a resurgence of idiosyncratic and highly personal designs, is Rossi's emphasis on the collective, the public realm. He reminds us that individual reputations and accomplishments are less important than our cities themselves.

—Mary McLeod , Design Book Review

Reviews

Written 17 years ago, at a time when the Italian student movement had just begun and interdisciplinary design methodologies enjoyed popularity, [ The Architecture of the City ] was one of the first major reassessments of the Modern Movement. In contrast to Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, appearing in the same year, Rossi's critique focuses not on the sterility of forms or the rejection of stylistic imagery in modern architecture, but rather, as the title suggests, on the neglect and destruction of the city, the repository of 'the collective memory of man.' Perhaps most important to Americans, who face a resurgence of idiosyncratic and highly personal designs, is Rossi's emphasis on the collective, the public realm. He reminds us that individual reputations and accomplishments are less important than our cities themselves.

Design Book Review - Mary McLeod