A quote from Rossi that stood out to me was “Between past and present, reality and imagination, the analogous city is perhaps simply the city to be designed day by day, tackling problems and overcoming them, with a reasonable certainty that things will ultimately be better.” I think that is a good summary of understanding his position on architecture. To him, there is no master plan as the modernists like Le Corbusier used, as well there is no master approach as TeamX and the Metabolists expected. Instead, it is an ever-changing model that grows and adapts from its experiences and history. And by doing so architecture can take a third type approached, not taking origins from nature or from the machines they may house, but being self-definitive. Architecture has reached a point that it can be self-sufficient drawing future ideas from its past.
Rossi, Aldo. The Analogous City Panel, 1976.