“la città ha per fine se stessa” / “the city is itself its own end”

Abstract

Arguing that “city is itself its own end” enjoin us to focus on the very moment of its production through the act of building rather than seeking for goals to reach. Because this apparently tautological proposition preserves architecture from being oriented toward certainty, it offers the decisions the opportunity to become truly political: societal choices that one is responsible for; so that city making becomes intensely human. However, the knowledge of how to preserve and activate the urban process by building locally is a field that Rossi just opens.