Turning to old concepts or to an architect who belongs to the last century in order to make a general reflection on ideas for the new one would probably seem a paradox; however, what Aldo Rossi wrote almost sixty years ago,namely "...the lack of interest toward history translates into a lack of interest in technique since not being aware of the former corresponds to being disinterested in the creative aspect of the latter", could still serve as a basis for reflections on the current conditions and could also help understand what coming up with new concepts in this new millennium means.
When Rossi states that behind the many concepts of city you can always find a reference to something, a purpose , he makes clear that it doesn't matter if the goal is the city of the catholic church, the liberal city or the fascist city; the concept of city is always the foundation, the same way it was for the cities in the Soviet Union or for Henselman's Stalinallee in Berlin.
As a student he stood up for architects like Muzio the same way he did for the soviet and the fascist ones in order to assert, whithout any ideological prejudice, the value and the beauty of their architectures. Admiring Moscow's beauty with its huge skyscrapers and Lenin's university, didn't mean he shared the ideology that served as a basis for the construction of these buildings; he only meant to put the spotlight on the fact that these constructions symbolized the connection between a great idea and architechture.
In these buildings Rossi could see the concept of monument, the same that shows through each and every one of his works and that has nothing to do with rhetorical monumentalism. What he was really interested in was the organisational potential of the urban spaces, that became themselves the guide to the further expansion of the city, a point of view that can be considered a palladian concept.
