Aldo Rossi’s Inspiration

Aldo Rossi regards reason and memory as the backbone of his work, which is why he admires the 19th century rationalist Adolf Loos so much. Both of them want to capture the reality of their works by avoiding the use of ornaments (Adolf Loos wrote “Ornament and Crime”) and emphasizing on the

relationship between architecture and the society whilst maintaining historical and traditional values. Aldo Rossi also admires Loos for his concept of having reason behind everything he does with his projects.

Through Aldo Rossi’s drawings and paintings, we can see how he has been greatly influenced by the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico for being able to explore the mysteries of remembrance . Both are also able to create a metaphysical and dreamlike atmosphere by creating very simple paintings with very complex underlying meanings.

Aldo Rossi also shows his admiration for the Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni who worked under the Fascist (opposite to Nazism) regime and also pioneered the Italian Modernist movement under rationalism. Like Aldo Rossi, Terragni wanted to revive the classical and vernacular traditions of Italian culture but Rossi was more successful in doing this because he was “operating through