Aldo Rossi's Inspiration

Aldo Rossi regards reason and memory as the backbone of his work, which is why he admires the 19th century rationalist Adolf Loos so much. Both of them want to capture the reality of their works by avoiding the use of ornaments (Adolf Loos wrote "Ornament and Crime") and emphasizing on the relationship between architecture and the society whilst maintaining historical and traditional values. Aldo Rossi also admires Loos for his concept of having reason behind everything he does with his projects.

Through Aldo Rossi's drawings and paintings, we can see how he has been greatly influenced by the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico for being able to explore the mysteries of remembrance . Both are also able to create a metaphysical and dreamlike atmosphere by creating very simple paintings with very complex underlying meanings.

Aldo Rossi also shows his admiration for the Italian architect Giuseppe Terragni who worked under the Fascist (opposite to Nazism) regime and also pioneered the Italian Modernist movement under rationalism. Like Aldo Rossi, Terragni wanted to revive the classical and vernacular traditions of Italian culture but Rossi was more successful in doing this because he was "operating through memory rather than ideology" .

Louis Kahn has also played a prominent role in Aldo Rossi's projects. We can see that like Aldo Rossi's Cemetery in Modena, Louis Kahn also avoids using glass and his buildings also have masonry like structures that are simplified and abstractly shaped with circles and squares. These are used by Louis Kahn as if to suggest certain "unforeseeable functions" which Aldo Rossi also includes in his theory. Kahn also calls for "silence" which is similar to Rossi's work since they usually stand silent amongst the other modernist buildings surrounding it (not intruding but not blending in with the other modernist buildings either). Aldo Rossi also emphasizes in his book ‘A Scientific Autobiography' that he wants his