Architecture, as a composition of structure and art works, Rossi describes the city as an artifact. Cities are like human beings, but can live longer as bigger operation. It has its own history, memory, and these can make a city unique in the world.
As Rossi states: “ Architecture, attesting to the tastes and attitudes of generations, to public events and private tragedies, to new and old facts, is the fixed stage for human events.” (P22) Human beings are searching for the general order to organize themselves, and better blend in its environment. I think this idea has parts of similarity with Professor Maki’s idea. In his book, he likens city as organism, every citizen is a part of the city. And it’s those citizens who formed the memory of a city in decades.
Urban artifacts are complex and have a lot of components inside. And each component “has its own role to play in the model”.(P57) All these components form the city as a whole artifact. Thus, the artifact enable us to understand the city totally, or it can also help us to realized the isolated elements inside the urban system. All cities are unique, with their unique landmarks and the city planning style. Like the New York City as I always mentioned, the memory and style makes the city the biggest city in the world. People like to live here because they like this city as a cell, and the architectures, roads, and human beings are the substance inside the organism. But in some new cities built in late last century, because of its lack of memory and its own culture, the city will lose their citizens if the economy is not growing well, just like Detroit.
References:
Rossi, Aldo. The Architecture of the City. The MIT Press, 1966.
Maki, Fumihiko. Investigations in Collective Form. St. Louis: Washington University, 1964.