Autobiografia scientifica (A Scientific Autobiography)

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Aldo Rossi

Pratiche editrice, Milan, 1999; English translation published 1981, 2010 by The MIT Press

Nonfiction, Architecture

ISBN: 9788873806189

From The MIT Press (publisher of English translation). This revealing memoir by Aldo Rossi (1937–1997), one of the most visible and controversial figures ever on the international architecture scene, intermingles discussions of Rossi's architectural projects—including the major literary and artistic influences on his work—with his personal history. Drawn from notebooks Rossi kept beginning in 1971, these ruminations and reflections range from his obsession with theater to his concept of architecture as ritual. The book originally appeared as one of the landmark titles in the MIT Press's Oppositions Books series, but has been out of print for many years. This newly issued paperback reprint includes illustrations—photographs, evocative images, and a set of drawings of Rossi's major architectural projects—selected by the author himself to augment the text.

On 3 book lists

Alberto Alessi

On Alberto Alessi’s Book List

Aldo was one of my maestros when I was much younger. A good thinker. He brought a strong poetic approach to the discipline of architecture, opening that angle of view to product designers. His Nietzschean thinking made his life too short. I particularly like the picture with his daughter Vera on the bridge at Lake Mergozzo in northern Italy.

Daniel Libeskind

On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List

My favorite book about the “inner” reality of places, by perhaps the best theoretician of the last century.

Abbott Miller

On Abbott Miller’s Book List

An author whose sense of ennui and melancholy connected my younger interest in surrealism with my burgeoning interest in architecture.

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