A Presentation by:

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CITY 1. Aparna C S

2. Deepika K
3. Jaya Suriya N
BY ALDO ROSSI 4. Kavipriya K
5. Sai Sudharshan R
The Architecture of the City is a book
of urban design theory by the Italian
Architect Aldo Rossi, published in
Padova, Italy in 1966.

Aldo Rossi’s inspirations were the

Italian painters Mario Sironi and
Giorgio Morandi, and their work on
urban landscapes fuelled Rossi’s
knowledge in Urban Design.

Rossi’s main philosophy is that he

engages in a determined search for
essential forms of buildings and
attempts to recover the ‘immovable
elements of architecture’.
OTHER BOOKS WRITTEN BY ALDO ROSSI

A Scientific Autobiography Aldo Rossi: Projects and Drawings

INTRODUCTION
Based on his notes and lectures, Aldo Rossi published ‘The Architecture of the City’ in
1966 in Padova, Italy. Functionalism was a dominant concept at this point of time
among architects.

This book was a fascination for architects in that era because it gave them a chance
to look at architecture from a new perspective with regards to the city as an
interpretation of collective life, reality and history instead from a functional aspect.

Rossi mainly conveys the meaning through the forms of the existing buildings and the
urban artifacts, and also critiques the works of notable architects and philosophers,
whose theories focused more on functionalism and other aspects of architecture.
OVERVIEW
The book is divided into four chapters of study. This presentation covers the key points
of the chapters and also is aimed at conveying the language of the book in simpler
connotations:
1. Chapter 1 – The Structure of Urban Artifacts
2. Chapter 2 – Primary Elements and the Concept of Area
3. Chapter 3 – The Individuality of Urban Artifacts; Architecture
4. Chapter 4 – The Evolution of Urban Artifacts
5. Conclusion
CHAPTER 1
The first chapter deals with the author talking about the city and his ideology of the
city being studied based on its form. The study topics have been divided as follows
for easy interpretation:
1. Structure of the Urban Artifacts
2. Urban Artifact as a Work of Art
3. Typological Questions
4. Critique of Naïve Functionalism
5. Problems of Classification
1. STRUCTURE OF THE URBAN ARTIFACTS
•According to the author, the description of the city is primarily form based.
•He considers that the architecture of the city summarizes the city’s form, which in turn
considers the city’s problems.
•The meaning of ‘Architecture of the City’ can be interpreted in the following two
ways:
a. City is a large, gigantic, man-made object
b. City is composed of urban artifacts, which are characterized by their own history
and forms.
•Architecture is only one aspect of a larger structure (consisting of culture, social issues,
etc.). However, we study the same as it is a verifiable fact of reality and constitutes a
position to address the problem.
Study through specific urban artifacts provides us with
the following information:
A. More obvious problems are opened up
B. Less obvious problems which are reflected through
the quality and uniqueness of each urban artifact.

THE CASE OF EUROPEAN CITIES

•European Cities are composed of large palaces,
building complexes or agglomerations. However, their
function tends to differ from the one they were
originally intended for.
•Considering the case of Palazzo della Ragione in
Padua, although the form remains the same, the
multiplicity of functions exists which is independent of
the form. At the same time, the form is impressive,
experience based and it structures the city.
The author describes the individuality of a building based on certain factors:
•He emphasizes the physical form more than the material used to build the said form
•He refers to it as a complicated entity which has evolved in both space and time.
•He also regards that the urban artifacts are much superior to the newer buildings when
considering their historic richness, which is an important aspect of shaping the city.

The author connects other factors with the form of an urban artifact as well:
•Values: Mostly spiritual, they are connected with the building’s materiality.
•Experience: How the form is experienced varies between people. What might be an ominous
experience to one, might be an auspicious experience to another. The sum of all experiences is
what constitutes a city.

At the end of the chapter, the author re-emphazises that he is concerned with the form,
which seems to summarize the total character of the urban artifacts, including their
origins.
2. URBAN ARTIFACT AS A WORK OF ART
•The author states that the quality and uniqueness of urban artifacts are derived not
only from their form which was developed in both time and space, but also from their
characteristics as a work of art, which mainly owes to materialistic constructions
and other aspects.
•He cites the theories of Claude Levi Strauss and Maurice Halbwachs correlated with
architecture:
Claude Levi Strauss’s theory: Other than works of art, the city achieves a balance
between natural and artificial elements.
Maurice Halbwachs’s theory: Imagination and collective memory are the typical
characteristics of urban artifacts.
•The author states that the city, agricultural land and forest are the ‘human works of
art’, as they’re the immense repository of the labour of our hands.
Criticism of Camillo Sitte’s study:
•Camillo Citte proposed three major city
planning methods: the gridiron planning,
radial planning, and the triangular planning.
•The sub-types are considered as the hybrids
of the aforementioned planning systems.
•He strongly believes that the planning
system possesses no artistic concern as
such, as it is inapprehensible in entity and
the visual aesthetics are only appreciated
from what a spectator actually views, which
can be the street, an individual plaza, etc.
•However, the author criticizes Sitte’s work as
being just legible and delivering no
concrete, overall performance, which just
focuses on the street view and not the
experience of a city altogether.
3. TYPOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
•The author states that the city is a thing of the humans constituted by its architecture
and all other works that constitute the true means of transforming nature.
•Throughout ages, developments throughout civilizations have been traced as listed:
i. Bronze Age: Digging Wells, Drainage Canals
ii. First Houses: Sheltered inhabitants from the external environment
iii. The region expanded due to the development of an urban nucleus.

A sense of transformation was thus, noticed in civilizations.

i. Type developed according to both needs and aspirations of beauty.
ii. A particular type was associated with the form and the way of life.
Type is a constant and it manifests itself
with a character of necessity.

For example, a central plan is fixed and is

a constant type in religious architecture. It
varies among buildings by reflecting the
dialectical theme with functions, construction
themes, etc.
4. CRITIQUE OF NAÏVE FUNCTIONALISM
•The author rejects the explanation based on function since he believes few artifacts
do not possess the same function as they do now.
•He compares the function with a bodily organ whose functional changes can indicate
a change in the form of the body containing the organ.

Thought Process of Functionalists according to Rossi:

•They believe that form is derived from the most complex derivations
•The type is reduced to a simple organization scheme with diagrams of circulation
routes.

When a building is studied, the function generally overwhelms and takes priority over
the urban landscape and form.
However, the function becomes the important aspect of what citizens seek to exercise.
It classifies any building or any city as commercial, cultural, military, religious, etc.
Function is hence, adopted as a practical and contingent criterion.
5. PROBLEMS OF CLASSIFICATION
•The author here considers the importance of other interpretations within the domain
of architecture of the city.
•He mainly considers the theories of Tricart, Poete and Milizia.

Tricart’s Theory of Social Geography:

•Tricart has established three orders or scales of study:
oScale of streets, including the built area and empty spaces that surround it.
oScale of districts, consisting of a group of blocks with common characteristics.
oScale of the entire city, consisting of a group of districts.
•Shape of the plots of land in a city, their formation and their evolution also indicate a
class struggle and social hierarchy in a society.
•However, the author disagrees with the theory of social geography since he believes
that the quality of urban artifacts should be studied to gauge the quality of the city
and problems revolving around the same.

Scientific View of Marcel Poete:

•Urban artifacts are indicative of conditions of the urban organism.
•Knowledge of the past constitutes the terms of the present and the measure of the
future.
•The derivation of this knowledge is especially facilitated by the study of city plans
and other physical features shaping the city.
•A relationship between geographic regions and the city is established. The city is
born in a major place and the street gives it life.
Milizia’s Theory of Enlightenment:
•This theory deals with both individual buildings and the city as a whole.
•He classified buildings as either private (housing) or public.
•Additionally, he defines a ‘class’ to the buildings. For instance, villas and houses are
‘first class buildings’, police buildings & public utilities belong to the ‘second class
buildings’, etc.
•His analysis is carried out in an order, with him giving importance to class first, and
then location of the elements, lastly, the form and organization of buildings.

The general system is the city; the development of the elements is bound with the
system of development adopted.
6. THE COMPLEXITY OF URBAN ARTIFACTS
•According to the author, the city is a
totality, in other words, all the urban
artifacts and the city are a collective.
•He mentions permanence of urban
artifacts and classifies it into two sections:
i. Historical/Propelling permanence
ii. Pathological Permanence

According to him, persistence changes the

urban artifacts into monuments, which take
part in the process of a city’s development
as a catalyst.
Medjid-al-Djamia or Arab Mosque in Cordoba, Spain
(now a cathedral)
As a result of the first chapter, Rossi underlines that the value of the city and the
urban artifact is estimable not by their functions but by their permanent forms, since
the form of the city is closely bound up with time of the city, while the functions are
changeable and can be lost over time.
CHAPTER 2
PRIMARY ELEMENTS AND THE CONCEPT OF AREA

In this chapter the author has put forward 3 distinct propositions,

•Urban development has a temporal dimension

•Spatial continuity of a city
•Existence of elements in urban structure that can affect urban process
He believes the city is characterized by its individual dwelling and that a city without
residential structures ceases to exist.

INSULA DOMUS
HOUSING IN BERLIN
The residential complexes were classified into the following :
1. Residential blocks
2. Semi-detached houses
3. Single-family houses
RESIDENTIAL BLOCKS

•Block housing was designed with a

series of courtyards and the facades
facing inward ,These courtyards were
essentially large gardens which also
housed nursery schools and vendors
stalls.
•They were called “rental barracks”
and since Berlin housed a large
number of such barracks, it earned
the name ‘Barracks city’.
SEMI DETACHED HOUSES (SIEDLUNGEN)

•Semi detached housing was designed in

accordance to the sun’s position and the
earliest form of modern city.
•The structure of these detached
buildings is completely disengaged from
the street.
•Need for public green spaces
SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES

•Drew inspiration from the

Roman Villa.
•Arose due to the need for
differentiation within a city
where increasingly diverse
social classes coexisted.
EVOLUTION OF HOUSING BLOCKS

1887

1853
According to the Prussian building code

1925
PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF A CITY
He says that any city is made of three principle functions,
•housing
•fixed activities
•circulation
 GROWTH OF A CITY
A central nucleus
A monument , walled structure ,amphitheatre , etc.
CHAPTER 3
THE INDIVIDUALITY OF URBAN ARTIFACTS & ARCHITECTURE
THE LOCUS
The Locus is the relationship between a specific location the buildings that are in
it. It is at once singular universal
•Genus loci, local divinity. the vital secret of a relationship between old and
new.
•The Locus participates as a unique physical place.
•The Locus itself is a single artefact determined by
oIts space time
oTopographical dimensions &its form
oBy its being on the seat of a succession of ancient and recent events and
by its memory
•It is also used in renaissance period with its treatment on topographic and
functional aspects in times of Palladio and later in Miliza’s period
•According to violet-le duc, locus participates as unique and physical place
EXAMPLE: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

•The Catholic religion is a universal concept

•It is possible to identify a singular point by
a particular event that occurred there.
• Henri Paul Eydoux argues that certain places
have always been considered unique;
•These places have real signs of space a relationship
both to chance tradition.
HOW URBAN ELEMENTS BECOME DEFINED
•At the decisive moments of history, architecture re-proposed its own necessity to be sign & event in order to
establish & shape a new era.
•We must recognize the importance of both form the rational processes of architecture.
•Each time we find ourselves in the presence of real urban artefacts, we realize their complexity, this overcomes
any narrow interpretation based on function.
THE ROMAN FORUM
•The Roman forum is an excellent example of the relationship between architecture locus
•it is a monument of fundamental importance for a comprehensive understanding of urban artefacts.
•The Roman Forum was the centre of the Roman empire a reference point for the construction transformation of
so many cities of the classical world. It was a foundation for classical architecture the science of the city
as practiced by the Romans.
•Geographical formations charted the course of the extra-urban map.
•Therefore Rome was not based on a clear idea of urban design, but instead
on a structure indebted to the terrain.
•The beauty of an urban artefact resides both in the locus of architecture
which they embody and in the collectives reasons for desiring them
THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY
The value of history seen as collective memory, as the relationship of the collective to its place, is that it
helps us grasp the significance of urban structure, its individuality, and its architecture which is the form of
this individuality
The soul of the city = the city’s history

•The city’s distinctive character is formed from its memory, from past events. It is what makes the city
unique from any other.
•The city itself is the collective memory of its people, and like memory it is associated with objects and
people
 Memory becomes the guiding thread of the entire complex urban structure

Rome has been designed around its urban artifacts which signifies their importance to the
city and in turn provides the city with its strong identity
 The greatest monuments of architecture are of necessity linked intimately to its city

• Architecture of urban artifacts is distinguished from art. The latter exists for itself alone.
• In what way does history speak through art? Primarily through architectural monuments,
which are the willed expression of power
THE ABSENCE OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY
•Milton Keynes is an example of a city that reflects the absence of collective memory
•Built as a post 1960s new town it does not have typical layers of history. It has not been shaped by urban
artefacts only by a simple grid system.
•Without history what can be said of its identity and its future as an evolving city?
The union between past and the future exists in the very idea of the city. That it flows through in
the same way that memory flows through the life of a person

Just by walking through a city we get an idea of events that have shaped it and in-turn how
they shape the designs of the future.
DANIEL LIBESKIND
To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.
•Daniel Libeskind uses the idea of collective memory to his advantage time and time again in his work.
•His architecture is purposely built to symbolise past events and succeeds in evoking
peoples memories/thoughts of the event through the spaces created.
•Could his buildings be an example of urban artifacts of the future? His buildings have been shaped by
past events, but will they in turn succeed in shaping events of the future?
CHAPTER 4
THE EVOLUTION OF URBAN ARTIFACTS

The city can be defined by precise reference to space and time based on urban artifact.
The City as Field of Application for Various Forces; Economics
According to him, the forces come into play and causes certain changes, and which may be economical,
politicaI, or some other nature.
Thus, a city may change through its own economic well being - transformations of lifestyles, or may be
destroyed by war.

Also the forces operating on the city are of two orders:

• The nature of the city
• The specific way in which these forces produce transformations i.e, how they are applied how their
application causes different changes.

In the modern period a significant number of transformations are explained on the basis of planning,
physical form etc. Economic forces tend to have major influence on planning (material, construction
mechanism).
The Thesis of Halbwachs Rossi to describe expropriation.
Expropriation is the typical phenomena of the urban evolution which in turn affects the economic
factor of the urban evolution.
Expropriation does not occur in a homogeneous way in alI parts of the city, but it changes certain
urban districts completely with respect to others. Therefore it is necessary to acquire a complete
picture in variations from district to district at different periods we can measure the major variations
in space and time.

He classifies these variations into two parts :

• The expropriation relating to the role of the individual
• It is bound with the order of succession of a given series of artifacts.
For example, the structure of Paris is an overlapped image of Louis
XIV, Louis XV, Napoleon I and Baron Haussmann. Later, the
nationalization affected the road system and finally it changed the
form of Paris. The large-scale expropriations in Paris due to
nationalization, are clearly based on politics.

According to Halbwachs, the way of expropriation varies,

depending on its location and its period. He summarize the thesis of
Halbwachs, as three elements:
• The relation between, economic factors and the design of the city;
• The contribution of the individual to urban changes and its nature;
• Urban evolution is a complex fact
which tends to occur according to
highly precise laws and growth
of the city.
Further Considerations on the Nature of
Expropriations
He also refers to the thesis of bernoulli, regarding
the land ownership. He insists on collective ownership
of the land i.e, state ownership of property and the
abolition of private property.
He also refers to the planning of city of Barcelona,
that growth was not based on the politicaI-economic
objectives but was represented a moment in the city's
history and was taken as such.

As a result of these two aspects, he insists that

expropriation and land subdivision are typical
phenomena of urban evolution since they can lead to
immediate and radical transformation.
 LAND OWNERSHIP
According to Bernoulli, the two most fundamental issues are:
(i) The negative character of private property and the
harmful consequence of its extreme division; Land
ownership, whether rural or urban, tends to be based on
subdivision.
(ii) Historical reasons for the land division and its
consequences; During Industrial Revolution in 1789, land
became free. This led to the changes of ownership from the
aristocracy to the middle class and farmers. Later the when
the right of private ownership of land was manifested it
caused an unbounded increase of value of their own land.
The communal lands that should have been maintained as
communal property rather than dividing it among private
owners. This jeopardized the rational development of cities.
•In Berlin, the financial law of 1808 permitted government
lands to be used to liquidate government debts and to be
transferred into private ownership.
•Rossi criticized Bernoulli's explanation because those
features were subject to general economic laws. In his view
he considers it as a positive movement that led to the
development of the city. In short, the breaking up of land
led to degeneration of land but it actually promoted its
development.
HOUSING PROBLEM

Rossi did not accept that the problem

on housing was related to the socio-
economics of the city as stated by
Engels. Rossi argues that housing is a
technical problem that a city faces
during the industrial period.
In ancient Rome, when it became a big
metropolis, living conditions became
desperate. Problems of such type
persisted in the Middle Ages too. The
living conditions of the oppressed
were among the sorriest in the history
of mankind.
URBAN SCALE Rossi states that Industry is the source of every evil
and every good and becomes the true protagonist in
the transformation of the city. This is characterized by
three phases:
(i) The absolute identity between the work and place
of residence during the medieval city died. Both
creeped into the same building. During the
contemporary era, as a result of a chain of reactions,
workers’ housing, mass housing and rental housing
appeared.
(ii) When there was a merge of the house and work
places, there was a separation between the work
places that produced and which did not. Production
and administration were distinguished and the
division of labor became prominent. This created two
different neighbourhoods.
(iii) With the development of means of individual and
the full efficiency of public transportation to work
place, the choice of the place of residence became
increasingly independent of the place of work.
This completely changed the scale of the city. Each
phase brought up an enormous increase in the scale
of the city.
POLITICS AS CHOICE

Rossi states that if the architecture of

urban artifacts is the construction of
the city then politics constitute the
decisive moment. The city chooses the
image of itself through its political
institutions. Politics reveals its own
semblance in the urban artifacts when
we consider everything in the city as a
sign of the city’s progress, as seen
from the case of Athens, Rome and
Paris.
CONCLUSION
•The establishment of a city relates to various factors, and hence, the naïve theories
used to study the city is deemed inappropriate by Aldo Rossi.
•He emphasizes on the architecture of the city especially with respect to the built form.
The city which was established and which evolved depends on multiple forces within
the urban artifacts of the city.
•The book is regarded as a ‘cornerstone’ of urban studies and the author doesn’t
vouch for it being the ‘perfect theory’. However, this book lays a strong foundation for
the study of a city.