This book, published by Park Books, is the result of a dissertation conducted at ETH Zurich. Melancholy and Architecture looks at the work of Aldo Rossi (1931-1997), one of the key figures of postwar architecture, through the lens of a term often used to describe it: melancholy. While the influence of melancholy in other field has been studied, its presence in architecture has been overlooked. Exploring Rossi’s entire career, the book traces out the oscillation between enthusiasm and disenchantment that marks his work. Through an inquiry of one of Rossi’s landmarks, the Cemetery of San Cataldo in Modena, the book shows how this architect reinterpreted a typology of the past to help us come to terms with representations of death and the melancholy that inevitably accompanies it.

[Park Books]