The architect and cities: Aldo Rossi’s creativity at MAXXI

This article was originally published on Domus 1055, March 2021

After a major exhibition devoted to Gio Ponti, MAXXI in Rome now continues with Aldo Rossi in its culture programme dedicated to masters of Italian architecture. Like Ponti, Rossi, too, was versatile and prolific, contributing in a significant way to the theory and practice of design culture and whose legacy is still a source of inspiration, not only in Italy. The exhibition curated by Alberto Ferlenga, “Aldo Rossi. L’architetto e le città” (until 1.8.2021), showcases this legacy with a dense and varied collection of materials from not only the MAXXI archives and from the Fondazione Aldo Rossi but also from archives and collections around the world: 800 drawings, sketches, notes, letters, photographs, models and documents.

Quotes taken from his famous Quaderni Azzurri (displayed in a case) are found along the entire itinerary of this exhibition whose focus is on the materials that contributed in a pivotal way to Rossi’s experiences and his cultural project in post-war Milan, which is narrated through the photographs of Enrico Peressutti: they bear witness to the wealth of his interests and his relationships, his artistic personality obsessed with objects and a certain idea of built cities, conveyed by countless collages and watercolours.

His two most important and memorable designs, the Teatro del Mondo and the Cemetery in Modena, are given their own space at the two ends of the gallery while a central section at the venue offers a succession of 40 design models so as to create and evoke an imaginary city. His unique talent and creativity as a designer is also summed up in a display case hosting masterpieces of modern design, such as the Parigi armchair (1989), made for UniFor, the Piroscafo bookcase designed with Luca Meda in 1991 for Molteni&C. (who also manufactured the Museum tables Rossi’s drawings rest upon), and an impressive videogallery offering insightful interviews and interventions from the 1980s and 1990s.

Opening image: drawing by Aldo Rossi, the Museum chair, 1984. Courtesy of Molteni Museum