The aim of this dissertation is to put forward conceptual frameworks to inquire into and update the following theoretical categories of Aldo Rossi’s architectural production: the city as an artefact, the idea of type, architectural autonomy, history understood as collective imagination, and the concept of the analogical city. On one hand, our inquiry puts forward a close reading of particular aspects of Rossi’s formal and theoretical production, examining Rossi’s work as well as other commentators on Rossi’s work. On the other, the inquiry is supported by a selective reading of major figures as well as canonical theories and projects from the discipline of architecture. In both cases detailed readings of texts, drawings, built and unbuilt work is undertaken to extrapolate the theoretical categories as well as key descriptive characteristics. These develop the conceptual frameworks which are diagrams that visualise the relations between categories and characteristics. Revisiting Rossi helps us re-engage with architecture as a discipline that simultaneously produces its own historical-formal body of knowledge while co-determining the wider social imagination. The discipline has, in the last decades, become weakened by the continuing proliferation of unique architecture-objects and the rejection of architecture’s fixed terms of reference. By discussing the category of discipline, we point to future work on how architecture negotiates its formal condition and its societal role. We re-learn that architecture is an instrument that puts forward singular alternative ways of living – formal possibilities – and critical interpretations of existing conditions – theoretical alternatives. The primary method of inquiry is visual and literary montage. Simultaneously analytic and synthetic, montage provides a way to isolate theoretical categories and formal examples from the mass of material, then produce new insight by making connections between things otherwise different.

My doctoral work aims to construct a theoretical and intellectual framework to understand a set of remarkable developments concerning the Italian discourse on architecture from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s. This was when the term Rationalism and its theoretical body of work acquired renewed prestige replacing the ephemeral aesthetic of the modernist movement with a grounded discourse based on a deep understanding of the city as background of all architectural artifacts. The main hypothesis of my research is that this return to a rational methodology characterized by a deep understanding of architecture's internal building logic and identifiable in the work and ideas expressed in the International section of the XV Triennale Exhibition of 1973 had a significant and lasting impact on the thinking and formation of architecture culture in Italy and worldwide. This dissertation will thus attempt to construct a matrix of historical and methodological associations and demonstrations that validate and legitimize that rational methodology through a close examination of the work and key concepts of Tendenza, a group of architects in the Italy of the 1960s, pointing out their importance in preparing the ground for the International section of the XV Triennale Exhibition of 1973, which represented a major point of arrival and a point of departure for architecture culture in Italy and worldwide.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the stylistic development of the Italian architect Aldo Rossi from Modern to Post-Modern design. A summary of the Modern architectural movement is presented along with an analysis of the developments in Post-Modern architecture since 1960. The influence of Italian culture on Rossi's career is discussed through a brief survey of Ancient Roman archetypal motifs and Italian architecture of the early 20th century. Several key buildings proposed or constructed by Rossi from 1960-1990 are discussed based on his concepts of analogy, typology, morphology and rationalism.

L’esprit dialectique qui caractérise la posture intellectuelle d’Aldo Rossi en tant qu’enseignant et architecte, cristallise durant les années 1960, en Italie, une nouvelle approche de l’enseignement de la théorie du projet en architecture. Cherchant à être rationnel tout en intégrant la question de « l’élément subjectif » de l’architecte, au travers de son expérience, la posture intellectuelle de Rossi s’est positionnée en réponse à un contexte politique et universitaire en crise. Dans la continuité des recherches menées sur l’épistémologie et la pédagogie de l’architecture ainsi que sur son ouverture réflexive à d’autres champs disciplinaires, Rossi tente de construire un essai théorique à la Fabrique du projet (la Città analoga). Il y questionne la pensée analogique face aux études typologiques en cherchant à esquisser une méthode didactique fonctionnant par étapes. Face à la difficulté de rationaliser « l’élément subjectif », Rossi, prolonge son essai sur la Fabrique du projet, au travers de ses propres œuvres. / The dialectical spirit which characterizes Aldo Rossi's intellectual disposition as a teacher and architect practitioner, crystallized during the 1960s, in Italy, a new approach to the teaching of the theory of the project in architecture. Trying to be rational while integrating the question of " the subjective element " of the architect, through his experience, the intellectual posture of Rossi was positioned in response to a political and university crisis. In the continuity of the researches led by the epistemology and the pedagogy of architecture and on his reflexive openness to other disciplinary fields, Rossi tries to build a theoretical essay to the Fabric of the project (Città analoga). He questions the analogical thought in front of the typological studies and tries to sketch a didactic method step by step. Facing the difficulty of rationalising " the subjective element ", Rossi, extends his essay on the Factory of the project, through his own works.

Formulated as a feminist project, written as a pulp fiction, Architectural Flirtations: A Love Storey begins with our claim that the architectural discipline is centered around a culture of critique, which is based in what bell hooks calls “a system of imperialist, white supremacist, heterosexist, capitalist, patriarchy,” and that the values instilled by this culture not only begin with, but are reinforced and reproduced by, the education of young architects. Sounds serious. Right? In a move toward a more vulnerable, ethical and empowering culture of architecture, the project aims to displace the culture of critique, by questioning and undermining relationships of power and privilege through practices that are explicitly critical, queer feminist, and Campy. In other words, it takes seriously, in an uncertain, improper and playful way, what is usually deemed unserious within the architectural discipline, in order to undermine the usual order of things. All of the (love) storeys take place on March 21st, the spring equinox, in and around a 1977 collaborative row house project called Case Unifamiliari in Mozzo, Italy, designed by Aldo Rossi and Attilio Pizzigoni. Beda Ring, PhD researcher, constructs a Campy renovation of one of these row houses, full of theatricality, humor, and significant otherness; while architectural pedagogue, Brady Burroughs, guides a student group from KTH in an Architecture and Gender course; and Henri T. Beall, practicing architect, attends to the details upstairs. / <p>QC 20161025</p>

Vårt examensarbete är ett konstnärligt forskningsprojekt som omfattar en inventering på över hundra torn från det medeltida Bologna samt en studie i hur torn som typologi förändras och transformeras beroende på kontext. Avsikten med vår studie är att skapa djupare förståelse för de historiska tornen i Bologna samt diskutera frågan om typologi som designmetod. Genom vårt historiska researcharbete besvarar vi frågor om varför tornen byggdes och varför de revs, hur de såg ut samt hur många de var. I diskussionen belyser vi frågan om torn som symbol och landmärke samt torns värde för stadsbilden som helhet under historiens gång. Projektet undersöker även torn som artefakt, där vi ser typologi som en metod för design. Vi tar stöd från Aldo Rossis Teatro del Mondo och utvecklar idén om ett klassiskt torn som tänjer sina egna gränser, omvandlas och anpassas för att bli specifikt i olika sammanhang i den moderna staden. Alla tornomvandlingar som gör är spekulativa och skall förstås som tydligt avläsbara reaktioner på platsens karaktär. På så sätt ämnar vi inte lösa specifika problem utan studera ett teorietiskt problem genom att problematisera, agera och analysera. / Our thesis is a research based project that includes an inventory of over one hundred towers of medieval Bologna and a study in the tower typology, how it change and transforms depending on the context. The purpose of our study is to create a deeper understanding of the historical towers of Bologna and discuss the issue of typology as a method for design. Through our historical research, we answer questions about why the towers were built, why they disappeared, what they looked like and how many they were. In the discussion, we highlight the issue of tower as a symbol and landmark and tractor value to the townscape as a whole throughout history. The project also examines the towers as an artifact, which we see typology as a method for design. We take support from Aldo Rossi's ideas realized in Teatro del Mondo and develop the idea of a classic tower that pushes its own boundaries, transforms and adapts to become specific in different contexts in the modern city. All tower transformations we are suggesting are speculative and should be understood as reactions of their specific environment. We do not intent to solve a specific problem but study a theoretical problem by questioning, acting and analyzing.