Analogous City

This augmented reality application enhances a museum exhibit about Aldo Rossi's The Analogous City, a 1976 Venice Biennale artwork by Rossi, Consolascio, Reichlin, and Reinhart. The app interacts with a reproduction of The Analogous City (available at http://archizoom.epfl.ch), overlaying digital layers of source material references onto the artwork.

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

Purchasing a map-based reproduction of The Analogous City from Archizoom allows users to replicate the exhibit's interactive experience anywhere. This printed map includes texts by Rossi, Reinhart, and Rodighiero.

The Analogous City (La Città Analoga) was envisioned as a practical urban design. Its components include diverse sources, such as Giovanni Battista Caporali's drawing of Vitruvius' city (1536), Galileo Galilei's Pleiades Constellation sketch (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 Notre Dame du Haut (1954), and various architectural designs by Rossi and his collaborators.

Aldo Rossi's own words on The Analogous City, from Lotus International #13 (1976), encapsulate its essence: "Bridging past and present, reality and imagination, the analogous city is perhaps simply the city we design daily, confronting and resolving challenges, with a reasonable expectation of eventual improvement."