Memoria e architettura. Il caso del monumento

Abstract

Monuments represent the most explicit manifestation of the relationship between architecture and memory and, consequently, delineate a field of inquiry into collective memory understood as a deliberate cultural construction. A significant analytical contribution to this theme is provided by the theoretical production of two of the most prominent figures of the postwar Milanese movement for architectural renewal, Aldo Rossi and Ernesto Nathan Rogers. The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between architecture and memory through a discussion of several theses advanced by the two architects. From this perspective, memory emerges as the condition for the recognition of a monument’s meaning and shapes the emotional relationship that the observer establishes with the architectural work.