Author(s): Pier Vittorio Aureli

ARCHITECTURAL THEORY | PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS

A challenging and polemical argument about the Autonomia movement in Italy, a group of Italian intellectuals who produced a powerful and rigorous critique of capitalism and work in the 1960s and '70s, and its intersections with two of the most radical architectural urban theorists of the day: Aldo Rossi and Archizoom. The Project of Autonomy introduces English speaking readers to major figures like Mario Tronti and Raniero Panzieri who have previously been little known here, especially in an architectural context; and draws on siginficant new source material, including recent interviews by the author and untranslated material. Finally, the book includes beautiful illustrations related to the context of these intellectual and architectural movements, with reproductions of rare publications of the 1960s as well as seminal projects and exhibitions. A part of the FORuM Project Publication series published in association with the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University.

The Project of Autonomy radically readdresses the concept of autonomy in politics and architecture by tracing a concise and polemical argument about its history in Italy in the 1960s and early 1970s. Architect and educator Pier Vittorio Aureli analyzes the position of the Operaism movement and its intersections with two of the most radical architectural-urban theories of the day: Aldo Rossi's redefinition of the architecture of the city and Archizoom's No-stop City. The book draws on significant new source material, including recent interviews by the author and untranslated documents.