Aldo Rossi
b. 1931, Milan, Italy
d. 1997
Designed in two phases between 1971-76 and 1980-88, the San Cataldo Cemetery is considered one of Aldo Rossi's most important works. In its meticulous planning, the Cemetery utilizes theories laid out in his book, The Architecture of the City (1966), which studies the importance of drawing on the history and context of a site.
The Cemetery also features early versions of forms that continued to recur throughout his work: triangular, circular, and square shapes. These ideal and platonic forms also resemble children's building blocks, specifically, the Italian children's board game Gioco dell'Ocha (Game of the Goose).
These elements come together in a familiar yet strange way that seems to evoke the spatial organization of a Giorgio De Chirico painting and create a site defined by absence. The center of the design includes a cube ossuary with no roof or windows, which Rossi envisioned as a "city of the dead." An unbuilt conical tower would have marked the graves.
Aldo Rossi (1931 -1997) was renowned for his architecture, design, and writing. He won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1990.
