Application Description

This augmented reality application enhances a museum exhibit about Aldo Rossi's Analogous City. The app, designed for use with a reproduction of the artwork (available at http://archizoom.epfl.ch), overlays digital layers onto the physical piece, revealing the complete source materials of the collage.

The application is integral to the interactive installations for the exhibition "Aldo Rossi - The window of the poet, Prints 1973-1997" at the Bonnefanten Museum (Maastricht), Archizoom EPFL (Lausanne), and GAMeC (Bergamo).

Purchasing the Archizoom-published map reproduction of the Analogous City allows users to recreate the exhibition experience anytime, anywhere. This printed map includes texts by Aldo Rossi, Fabio Reinhart, and Dario Rodighiero.

Originally envisioned as a real urban project, the Analogous City (La Città Analoga) incorporates diverse elements such as Giovanni Battista Caporali's drawing of Vitruvius' city (1536), Galileo Galilei's Pleiades Constellation drawing (1610), Tanzio da Varallo's painting David and Goliath (ca 1625), Francesco Borromini's plan for San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638-1641), the Dufour topographic map (1864), Le Corbusier's plan for the Notre Dame du Haut chapel (1954), and various architectural designs by Rossi and his associates.

As Aldo Rossi himself described in Lotus International No. 13 (1976): “Bridging past and present, reality and imagination, the analogous city is perhaps simply the city we design day by day, addressing and overcoming challenges, with a reasonable hope that the outcome will ultimately be improved.”

Art & Design