Aldo Rossi: The Architecture of the City (1966–) [IT, DE, EN, BR-PT, CR]

“Aldo Rossi, a practicing architect and leader of the Italian architectural movement La Tendenza, is also one of the most influential theorists of the second half of the 20th century. The Architecture of the City is his major work of architectural and urban theory. In part a protest against functionalism and the Modern Movement, in part an attempt to restore the craft of architecture to its position as the only valid object of architectural study, and in part an analysis of the rules and forms of the city’s construction, the book has become immensely popular among architects and design students.”

First published as L’architettura della città, Padova: Marsilio, 1966.

English edition
Introduction by Peter Eisenman
Translation by Diane Ghirardo and Joan Ockman
Revised for the American Edition by Aldo Rossi and Peter Eisenman
Publisher Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago; Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York; and MIT Press, 1982
Oppositions Books series
208 pages

Reviews and commentaries: Adolf Max Vogt & Radka Donnell (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 1983), Mary Louise Lobsinger (Journal of Architectural Education, 2006), Farida Nilufar (Protibesh, 2004).

Publisher (EN)
WorldCat (EN)

L’architettura della città (Italian, 1966/2006, 137 of 235 pages, 3 MB, via)
Die Architektur der Stadt (German, trans. Arianna Giachi, 1973/1998, 6 MB, added 2015-7-18)
The Architecture of the City (English, trans. Diane Ghirardo and Joan Ockman, 1982, pages 20-27 & 164ff missing, 49 MB; OCR version added 2015-7-5 via Marcell Mars, 46 MB)
A arquitetura da cidade (Brazilian Portuguese, trans. Eduardo Brandão, 1995/2001, 83 MB, added 2015-6-30)
Arhitektura grada (Croatian, trans. Sanja Bingula, 1999, 5 MB, via Sara Renar, updated 2015-6-30; OCR version added 2015-7-5 via Marcell Mars, 20 MB)

More from Rossi.

Herbert Read: Art and Industry: The Principles of Industrial Design (1934)

One of the most important texts promoting Modernism published in Britain. The layout was designed by former Bauhaus tutor Herbert Bayer. “In this text, the designer is portrayed as an abstract artist working in industry, reconciling elements of design such as materials, form, colour, and proportion with modern mass-production technology. Read felt that the designer should play a central role in modern manufacture, rather than the low-paid, subservient role that generally prevailed at the time.”

Publisher Faber and Faber, London, 1934
Reprint Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1935
143 pages
via Joseph Allen

Review: Listowel (Philosophy, 1934).
Commentary: Robin Kinross (Journal of Design History, 1988).

PDF (146 MB, no OCR)

René Spitz: The View Behind the Foreground: The Political History of the Ulm School of Design, 1953-1968 (2002) [EN, DE]

“The Ulm School of Design (HfG) has a reputation as the place which, after the Bauhaus, has had the most lasting influence not only on the design of industrially manufactured goods and of services but also on designer training. As a private institution the HfG was different from other contemporary design-focused training centers in that its goal was design based on the humanities and natural sciences, rather than traditional design, whose approach is one that relies on artistic intuition.

At the HfG, designers were trained, design took shape, theories of design were elaborated, and methods of design developed. In speaking of the instruction method used at the HfG and the way designers teamed up with technicians and business people, the terms “Ulm model” or “Ulm concept” are used. But the tangible results of work at the HfG – product and information design – have also set a trend: They are said to have a special “Ulm style”.” (from the back cover)

Publisher Axel Menges, Stuttgart, 2002
ISBN 3932565177, 9783932565175
462 pages

Review: Shantel Blakely (2003).

Publisher
WorldCat (EN)

HfG Ulm: The View Behind the Foreground (English, 87 MB, updated on 2019-2-25)
HfG Ulm. Ein Blick hinter den Vordergrund (German, 82 MB, updated on 2019-2-25)