Aldo Rossi: Between Actuality and Imagination

Lets start with an image: a photograph. Fagnano Olona Elementary School (1972 – 6) in Italy by Aldo Rossi (Fig. 1), is defined by a courtyard plan-form and axially-arranged accommodation. Within the courtyard, wide steps lead to the double height gymnasium, from which one can look toward the cylindrical library with its glazed roof. We can read this analogically so the gymnasium is equated with physical health; the library is a particular building type and represents knowledge; between these are the square and steps, a theatre in which the life of a city unfolds. Encapsulated within the landscape of the site, the school is a city in microcosm.