Aldo Rossi

Architecture, Memory and Everyday Geometries

Aldo Rossi (1931–1997) was one of the leading figures in twentieth-century Italian architecture and design. An architect, theorist and designer, in 1990 he became the first Italian to receive the Pritzker Prize.

His rigorous and instantly recognisable language emerged from the encounter between elementary geometric forms and architectural memory: cones, cylinders and pure volumes became distinctive objects for everyday life.

This approach found one of its best-known expressions in his collaboration with Alessi, for whom Rossi designed iconic objects such as La Conica (1984) and La Cupola (1988) coffee makers, true miniature architectures. Throughout his career, he also collaborated with Molteni&C, UniFor and Artemide, bringing the same formal clarity from architecture to the scale of furniture and objects.

His creations remain remarkably contemporary today: essential, recognisable objects deeply rooted in the history of Italian design.