Rossi, Aldo( 1931 – 1997 )
Perspective sketches, sketch plans, and detail sketches for the Centro Direzionale, Florence, 1977 ,
Canadian Centre for Architecture, DR 1987 ; 0152 , 29. 7 21 cm, Blue ballpoint pen
and black felt tip marker on glossy white paperAldo Rossi left a tremendous amount of thought-provoking sketches representing his design
process. These playful sketches were part of intense research and also served as a method to facilitate
his imagination (Rossi, 2000 ).
Rossi was born in Milan and attended the Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1959. Upon leaving
school, he became an assistant to Ludovico Quaroni at the School of Urban Studies in Arezzo. Also in
1959 , Rossi joined the Il Contemporancoeditorial staff, becoming editor of Casabellain 1964. Beginning
his architectural career with competitions, theoretical, and small projects, he also held positions in
academia – professor at the Milan Polytechnic, the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich, and the University
of Venice. Serving as visiting professor in such schools as Cornell, Cooper Union, Yale, and Harvard,
Rossi questioned paradigms of architecture and the city. He published his first book, The Architecture of
the City, in 1966 (Rossi, 1981 ).
Rossi’s architecture references recurring themes of ritual and memory. He felt strongly about place
as a regional, cultural, and yet global concept (Rossi, 1981 ). Rossi received the Pritzker prize for archi-
tecture in 1990 in consideration of his body of work, including the Cemetery of San Cataldo,
Modena, Italy ( 1971 ); Teatro del Mondo, Venice ( 1979 ); Civic Center, Perugia, Italy ( 1982 ); Carlo
Felice Theater, Genoa ( 1983 ); and Center for Contemporary Art, Vassiviére, France ( 1988 ).
Rossi’s vast number of published sketches demonstrate how he utilized images in the process of
design and as a dialogue between the past and the future. These pages are layered with elevations,
bird’s-eye axonometric views, and distorted perspectives, constantly utilizing the sketch to enforce
multiple viewpoints (Rossi, 2000 ). Many of the sketches, as part of complete pages, intersect and over-
lap with these views. Rendered in color with active, fast lines, the sketches often include full context
and become dense conglomerations of cities. Paolo Portoghesi writes that Rossi’s interest in viewing a
design from many angles stems from an idea of torsione, or twisting. This use of torsione, was ‘a means
of maintaining contact with memories without abandoning them’ (Rossi, 2000 , p. 13 ).
This sketch (Figure 7. 18 ) reflects the playful nature of Rossi’s design process. The page contains
axonometric, plan, and plan/oblique sketches, all oriented to provide multiple views. The images
show two types of pen, one lighter in tone, and the other facilitating a free flow of ink and rendering
a darker line. Here, a second layer refined his first thoughts and acted as guidelines, encouraging a level
of critique. Several of the brief plans have been dimensioned or reinforced to show he studied them
more thoroughly than others. At the bottom of the page has been placed three slender towers topped
with fully extended flags and a door piercing a crenellated wall. The largest axonometric, describing
two adjacent buildings, has been flanked by a yard appearing to contain a giraffe or a horse.
The cube-shaped plan/oblique to the upper left has been detailed with a pediment over the door, a
cut corner, and a long walkway. The building appears surprisingly like an animal, especially since it was
given two blue ink eyes. The remainder of the page has been left relatively monochromatic, accenting
the eyes. Perhaps as Rossi was sketching the small structure, with its corner cut ears and the pediment
nose, he could not resist adding a circle to enhance the nose and two blue eyes. This page reflects
Rossi’s strong sense of architecture as being permeated with memories and evoking associations.H5719-Ch07.qxd 7/15/05 3:49 PM Page 203