Content area
Full Text
As a student, Aldo Rossi was told to abandon hopes of becoming an architect because his drawings, in the words of his tutor, "looked like those of a bricklayer or provincial builder, or someone capable only of placing a stone to show roughly where a window would go." Rossi was delighted rather than disheartened with the criticism and went on to establish a successful career primarily as a post-modern architect but also as a product designer for Alessi among others. So reports Paolo Portoghesi, in the introduction to an appealing new book out this week of Rossi's drawings from 1991 until his early death in 1997 (Aldo Rossi - The Sketchbooks, Thames & Hudson, b&W and col illustrations, HB, #16.95). This handsomely illustrated book gives a rare insight into Rossi's creative process, including projects for the Whitehall ferry terminal in New York 1992 (top), and 1996 project for Walt Disney buildings in Los Angeles (above).