Powerful cemetery

Rossi’s theory and work are responsive to the modern architecture that had spread across the world to become known as the International Style. While this style was about simplicity, stripping down to the basics, and uniformity, Rossi’s desire was to bring back that lost quality of architecture that would capture meaning and awe the beholder. His Modena Cemetery does just that. When I look at it at first, I am discomforted because I cannot reach out and claim any of the forms or spaces as familiar property of my culture… or of my world. The color, the scale, the massing, all of it is unexpected, unrecognizable and disassociated with typical building functions. Then when I begin to think about as a city of the dead, I feel inspired and intrigued by the mystery of what lies beyond the frame. It definitely sets up a threshold condition; it is as if the solid orange mass is a gated wall barring any from entering, yet the smaller square openings suggest passage into a new space, one hidden from sight by the shadows. Such a bold monument opposes the light, airy, black and white forms of the International Style; it asks that we take a second look at architecture as something able to carry a weighty meaning and project a profound understanding that even words could not capture.