Why this Pritzker winner believed cities are built from collective memory, not just stone.

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Aldo Rossi, the first Italian to win the Pritzker Prize, rejected the idea that architects should chase novelty. Instead, he argued that cities are living artifacts shaped by enduring, universal forms. By tapping into our shared history, he sought to create structures that feel timeless rather than merely trendy.

Born in Milan in 1931, Aldo Rossi emerged as a leading voice in the postmodern movement, though his work is often defined by neorationalism—a philosophy that updates the austere classicism of 1920s Italian architects. In his seminal 1966 book, The Architecture of the City, Rossi proposed that urban environments are not just collections of buildings but complex artifacts. He argued that architecture relies on continuous forms that persist through time, serving as anchors for what he termed our collective memory.

Rossi’s approach was deeply skeptical of individualistic, disruptive design. He believed that architects should respect the existing urban fabric, utilizing a limited range of building types that resonate with the history of a place. This theory was famously realized in his design for the San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena, begun in 1971. The project, which he called a city of the dead, stripped architecture to its essence, using simple, repetitive geometric forms that felt both ancient and strikingly modern in their lack of ornamentation.

Beyond his theoretical contributions and teaching career at institutions like ETH Zurich and Cornell, Rossi was a prolific designer of objects and spaces. His work ranged from the floating Teatro del Mondo at the 1979 Venice Biennale to industrial designs for companies like Alessi. Whether designing a hotel in Japan or a residential complex in Milan, Rossi remained committed to the idea that architecture should withstand the passage of time. By the time he received the Pritzker Prize in 1990, he had firmly established himself as a poet of the built environment, leaving behind a legacy that continues to challenge how we perceive the relationship between history and the modern city.

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