Aldo Rossi

Aldo Rossi (°Milano, May 3th, 1931 – †Milano, September 4th, 1997) was an Italian architect and designer, he won the Pritzker Prize in 1990.

After early education by the Somascan Religious Order and then at Alessandro Volta College in Lecco, in 1949 he went to the school of architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. His thesis advisor was Piero Portaluppi and he graduated in 1959.

In 1955 he had started writing for, and from 1959 was one of the editors of, the architectural magazine Casabella-Continuità, with editor in chief Ernesto Nathan Rogers. He began his professional career at the studio of Ignazio Gardella in 1956, moving on to the studio of Marco Zanuso. In 1963 also he began teaching, firstly as an assistant to Ludovico Quaroni (1963) at the school of urban planning in Arezzo, then to Carlo Aymonino at the Institute of Architecture in Venice. In 1965 he was appointed lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Milan and the following year he published The architecture of the city which soon became a classic of architectural literature.

His professional career, initially dedicated to architectural theory and small building work took a huge leap forward when Aymonino allowed Rossi to design part of the Monte Amiata complex in the Gallaratese quarter of Milan. In 1971 he won the design competition for the extension of the San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena, which made him internationally famous. After suspension from teaching in Italy in those politically troubled times, he moved to ETH Zurich, occupying the chair in architectural design from 1971 to 1975.