Melancholy and Architecture - On Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi (1931 97) is a key figure in 20th-century architecture. Often described as melancholic, his work was and still is influential both in architectural theory and practice. This new book discusses this notion of melancholy and its role on the example of Rossi. Drawing on rich archival sources, the author investigates several aspects of the Italian architect figure and analyzes one of his landmark works, the Cemetery of San Cataldo in Modena, Italy. He also looks at the current issues of stardom, overexposure, and commercialization which Rossi anticipated, debating them in relation to melancholy. The history of melancholy as a companion to culture tells equally of affliction and an inspiration. Its meaning has always oscillated between medical statement and a mark of dignity. Subject and object, the individual and the collective have surrendered to the condition s allurement. While the influence of melancholy on visual arts and literature has been extensively debated, its presence in architecture has been overlooked so far. Yet artist and poets, such as Albrecht Durer (1471 1528) or Charles Baudelaire (1821 67), have related melancholy to questions of space, city, and modernity. Also, architects like Etienne-Louis Boullee (1728 99) or Adolf Loos (1870 1933) noted sentiments of gloom or crisis in their writings. Likewise, Aldo Rossi can be discussed from a similar standpoint. Amidst great social changes after WW II, he disputed the modernists credos and questioned the status of his profession. Discarding utopian pretences, his work claimed the autonomy of architecture with formal restraint. These positions and his understanding of terms like fragment and memory imply melancholy. His buildings, drawings, and writings oscillate between enthusiasm and disenchantment. The Cemetery of San Cataldo (1971 84) is an example of the latter. Closely intertwined with Rossi s biography, its stark and monumental buildings reinterpret a typology from the past to come to terms with the representations of death and its inevitable melancholy. "