Published in 1966, The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi is a book with many layers. On the one hand, it professed a series of influential doctrines to architectural theory and practice. On the other, it comprised a wide range of sources from disparate fields. Its diversity can perhaps be explained by the way the book was drafted. This paper investigates its making, based on archival sources held at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. In reality, the manuscript derives from a series of assorted documents that follow a sequence of contents. Many of them were pasted one after the other, like a collage. Henceforth, the procedure became prevalent in the work of Aldo Rossi. This research reconsiders the legacy of the Italian architect, disclosing evidence about his modus operandi.

[read text]