9

On Typology

Raael Moneo

I
To raise the question of typology in architecture is to raise ]'he very act of naming the architectural object is also a
a question of the nature of the architectural work itself. process that from the nature of language is forced to
To answer it means, or each generation, a redeinition of typify. rhe identiication of an architectural element like
the essence of architecture and an explanation of all its "column," or of a whole building-"courthouse"-implies
attendant problems. This in turn requires the establish­ an entire class of similar objects with common character­
ment of a theory, whose irst question must be, what kind istics. This means that language also implicitly acknowl­
of object is a work of architecture? This question ulti­ edges the concept of type.
mately has to retun to the concept of type.
What then is type? It can most simply be deined as a
On the one hand, a work of architecture has to be consid­ concept which describes a group of objects characterized
ered in its own right, as an entity in itself. That is, like by the same ormal structure. It is neither a spatial dia­
other orms of art, it can be characterized by a condition gram nor the average of a serial list. It is fundamentally
of uniqueness. From this point of view, the work of ar­ based on the possibility of grouping objects by certain
chitecture is ineducible within any classiication. It is inherent structw·al similarities. [t might even be said that�
unrepeatable, a single phenomenon. Stylistic relationships type means the act of thinking in groups. For instance, 1/
may be recognized among architectural works, as in the one may speak of skyscrapers in general; but the act of
other igurative arts, but they do not imply a loss of the grouping pushes toward speaking of skyscrapers as huge,
singularity of the object. distorted Renaissance palaces, as Gothic towers, as rag­
mented pyramids, as oriented slabs. . . . Then, as one
On the other hand, a work of architecture can also be seen becomes increasingly precise, one introduces other levels
as belonging to a class of repeated objects, characterized, of grouping, thus describing new ranks of types. One
like a class of tools or instruments, by some general at­ inishes with the name of a speciic building. 1 Thus the
tributes. From the fu-st hut to the archaic stone construc­ idea of type, which ostensibly rules out individuality, in
tion, primitive architecture conceived of itself as an activ­ the end has to return to its origins in the single work.
ity similar to other kinds of craftsmanship, such as the
making of textiles, pottery, baskets,· and so on. The irst Architecture, however-the world of objects created by
products of this activity, which we in retrospect have architecture-is not only desc1·ibed by types, it is also
called architecture, were no diferent rom instruments or pmduced through them. If this notion can be accepted, it
tools: building a primitive hut required solving problems can be understood why and how the architect identiies
of orm and design similai· in nature to those involved in his work with a precise type. He is initially trapped by
weaving a basket, that is in making a useful object. Thus, the type because it is the way he knows. Later he can act
like a basket or plate or cup, the architectural object could on it; he can destroy it, transorm it, respect it. But he
not only be repeated, but also was meant to be repeatable. starts from the type. The design process is a way of "
Any changes that developed in it were particularities that 1I bringing the elements of a typology-the idea of a fonnalj ;
could be ound in any product of cratsmanship over time. I stmctu1·e-into the precise state that characte1·izes the sin­
In this sense, the. uniqueness of the architectural object ! gle worc.
was denied. From this point of view a work of architec-
ture, a construction, a house-like a boat, a cup, a hel- But what precisely is a formal structure? One could at­
met-can be deined through ormal features, which ex- tempt a serie� of O)posing deinitions. First the aspects
press problems running from production to use, and which of th� Gestalt could be emphasized. This would mean
permit its reproduction. In these terms it can be said that speakin� about centrality or linearity . clusters 01· g1·ids,
the essence of the architectural object lies in its repeata- trying to characterize form in terms of a deeper geometry.

, bility. In this sense, certain texts have described all covered

10
24 centralized spaces, from the primitive hut to the Renais­
sance dome to that of the nineteenth century, as being of
the same "type." 2 This howeve1· reduces the idea of type
as ormal structure to simple abstract geometry. But type
as a ormal structure is, in contrast, also intimately con­
nected with reality-with a vast hierarchy of concens
running rom social activity to building construction. Ul­
timately, the group defining a type must be rooted in this
reality as welJ as in an abstract geometry. This means,
or example, that buildings also have a precise position in
2 history. In this sense nineteenth century domes belong to
r
an entirely diferent rank of domes from those of the
Renaissance or Baroque periods, and thereby constitute
their own speciic type.

This leads directly to the concept of a typological seri� y

that is generated by the relationship among the elements
that deine the whole. The type implies the presence of
elements orming such a typological series and, of course,
these elements can themselves be further examined and
considered as single types; but their interaction deines a
8 precise ormal structure.

2 El Oued in the Sahara, ae1·ial Thus, Brunelleschi introduced the lanten as a logical ter­
view. mination of the dome at Florence, and this orm was
imitated or almost three hundred years. The relationship
8 Ba,rakan village near Port between the classical dome and post-Gothic lanten should
Moresby, Papiia, New Guinea. be considered as one of the most characteristic features
of Renaissance and post-Renaissance domes, giving them
a certain ormal consistency. When Enlightenment archi­
tects worked with domes they entirely changed the rela­
tionship between the elements that deined the ormal
structure-dome and lanten-thus generating a new
type. Types are transormed, that is, one type becomes
another, when substantial elements in the ormal struc­
ture are changed. 1·

One of the frequent arguments against typology views it

as a "frozen mechanism" that denies change and empha­
sizes an almost automatic repetition.'' However, the very
concept of type, as it has been proposed here, implies the
idea of change, or of transformation. The architect iden­
tifies the type on or with which he is working, but that

11
4 Cheyenne village, Western Plains, 5, 6, 7, 8 Houses in Cebrero, Lugo,
U.S.A. Spain.

12
 9 Faience tablets rep1·esenting
houses and towers. The Palace of
Minos, Knossos, Crete.
10 Plans, Casa dei Signmi.
Francesco di Gim·gio Ma1tini,
Tratatto di architettura.

26

-
ri ---, ..
,----

I
F:..-:�--.

L.----··-·--· @

13
does not necessarily imply mechanical reproduction. Of
course, the typological approach per se does not demand
constant change; and when a type is irmly consolidated,
the resultant architectural orms preserve formal features
in such a way as to allow works of architecture to be
produced by a repetitive process, either an exact one as
ound in industry, or an approximate one, as ound in
craftsmanship. But the consistency and stability of forms
in such instances need not be attributed to the concept of
type; it is just as possible to conclude that the struggle
with an identical problem tends to lead to almost identical
orms. Or in other words, stability in a society-stability
relected in activities, techniques, images-is mirrored
also in architecture.

The concept of type is in itself open to change insofar as

it means a consciousness of actual acts, including, cer­
tainly, a recognition of the possibility of change. By look­
ing at architectural objects as groups, as types, suscep­
tible to differentiation in their secondary aspects, .e
ar ia s appearing in them ca11 be a raised.
�
and consequently one cai ac· to change them. e type
can thus be thought of as the rame within which chanqe
operates, a necessal'y term to the continuing djaJectjc re-
.qmrea by history. From this point of view, the type,
rather than being a "frozen mechanism" to produce archi­
tecture, becomes a way of denying the past, as well as a
way of looking at the future.

In this continuous process of transormation, the architect

can extrapolate from the type, changing its use; he can
distort the type by means of a transormation of scale; he
can overlap diferent types to produce new ones. He can IO
use formal quotations of a known type in a diferent con­
text, as well as create new types by a radical change in
the techniques ah·eady employed. The list of different
mechanisms is extensive-it is a function of the inven­
tiveness of architects.

The most intense moments in architectural development

are those when a new type appem·s. One of the architect's
greatest efforts, and thus the most deserving of admira­
tion, is made when he gives tip a known type and clearly

14
28 sets out to formulate a new one. Often, extenal events­ whenever an architectural object was related to some
such as new techniques or changes in society-are re­ orm, a kind of logic was implied, creating a deep bond
sponsible or impelling him toward this creation of a new with the past.
type, in accordance with a dialectical relationship with
history. But sometimes the invention of a new type is the Based in this way on history, nature, and use, the type
result of an exceptional pernonality, capable of entering had to be distinguished from the model-the mechanical
into architecture with its own voice. 5 I reproduction of an object. Type expressed the perma-
nence, in the single and unique object, of eatures which
1When a new type emerges-when an architect is able to connected it with the past, acting as a perpetual recog-,
J describe a new set of ormal relations which generates a
J nition of a primitive but renewed identiication of the
new group of buildings or elements-then that architect's condition of the object. Throughout the nineteenth cen-1
L contribution has reached the level of generality and ano- tury, however, the idea of type was applied in exactly the
nymity that characterizes architectm·e as a discipline. opposite way. Manuals and handbooks, so important or
nineteenth century architectunl knowledge, ofered
II models or exaniples. The new importance assume by pro­
Given this close relation between type and the discipline grams-a word that curiously does not appear in Quatre­
of architecture, it is not surprising to ind that the irst mere's Dictionary-is in clear opposition to his concept of
coherent and explicit formulation of an idea of type in type-orm, and transfers the ocus of theory to a new
architectural theory was developed by Quatrenere de ield, that of composition. Composition is the tool by which
Quincy at the encl of the eighteenth centm·y, precisely at the architect deals with the variety of programs ofered
the time when the traditional "discipline" of architecture by the new society; a theory of composition is needed to
had been thrown into question by emerging social and provide an inst1·ument capable of coping with a diversity
technical revolutions. G that, with diiculty, can be reduced to known types. In
this sense composition should be understood as the mech­
For Quatremere the concept of type enabled architecture anism that resolves the connection between orm and pro­
to reconstruct its links with the past, orming a kind of gram-or orm and function-to which a new idea of ar­
metaphorical connection with the moment when man, or chitecture is wedded. It is rom this point of view that the
the first time, confronted the problem of architecture and diference between Quatremere and someone like Durand
identiied it in a orm. In other words, the type explained can be seen.
the reason behind architecture, which remained constant
throughout history, reinorcing through its continuity the For Durand, the irst aim of architecture is no longer the
permanence of the irst moment in which the connection imitation of nature or the search or pleasure and artistic
between the orm and the nature of the object was under­ satisaction, but composition or "disposition." This idea of
stood and the concept of type was ormulated. The type composition is directly related to needs; its relevant cri­
was thus intimately related with "needs and nature." "In teria are, accordingly, convenience and economy. Conven­
spite of the industrious spirit which looks or innovation �nce seeks sqlidity, salubrity, and comort; economy re.­
in objects," Quatremere writes, "who does not prefer the .l!lires symmetry, regularity, and simplicity-al
circular orm to the polygonal or a human ace? Who does attributes to be achieved with composition.
not believe that the shape of a man's back must provide
the type of the back of a chafr? That the round shape must According to Durand, the architect disposes of elements­
itself be the only reasonable type or the head's coiffure?" 7 columns, pillars, oundations, vaults, and so on-which
The type was in this way identiied with the logic of orm have taken orm and proportion through their relationship
connected with reason and use, and, throughout history, with material and with use. These elements, argues Du-

15
 11 Facade combinations. J. N. L.
Durand, 1809.

rand, must be freed from the tyranny of the Orders; the

classical orders should be seen as mere decoration. 8 Hav­
I

IB�HH�[
ing established the elements irmly through use and ma­ 1iiiiliiiHUIIIIIII
tetial, Durand says that the architect's task is to combine
these elements, generating more complex entities, the
parts of which will-at the end, through the composition­
1n on

�A�-
be assembled in a single building. Thus Durand ofers a
series of porches, vestibules, staircases, courts, etc. as
parts of future buildings associated with precise programs
(igs. 1 [frontispiece], 11-14). These pruts, ordered and
presented like a repertoire of models, constitute the ma­
terials available to the architect. By using these parts,
the architect can achieve architectw·e through composi­
tion and still retain responsibility or inal unity-a clas­
sical attribute that Dw·and does not deny to the building.
But how to achieve this unity? Durand proposes two in­
struments with which to handle the composition, to rule
the construction of a building, whatever its program: one
is the continuous, undiferentiated g1·id; the other the use
of the a:1.;is as a support or the reversal of its pa1ts.

Both mechanisms are essentially contrary to Quatre­

mere's idea of type as based on elemental and primitive
o11ns. Quantiication is now posed against qualiication:
on the grid and with the axis, programs-buildings-could
be lexible as well as desirable. The square grid ended the
idea of architecture as it had been elaborated in the Ren­
aissance and used until the end of the eighteenth century;
the old deinition of type, the original reason or orm in
architecture, was transformed by Durand into a method
of composition based on a generic geometry of axis super­
imposed on the grid. The connection between type and
r---. -- -

r no r
fotm disappeared. i
.

OD 0i
I���
Durand himself avoided the idea of type; he used the word
gere when, in the third part of his book, he described the
QD
I
i Du O �
_f D
variety of buildings classiied according to their programs.
He collected, and sometimes even invented, hospitals, I

U-\! l
prisons, palaces, libraries, theaters, custom houses, bar­ �
acks, town halls, colleges (ig. 15); a collection which .
presupposed a certain conce111 with type, although solely
identiied with the building's use. In so doing, he repeated
the treatment he had adopted twenty years beore in his
11

16
 tt±i ttt�
30

.
!1__1 l '
++ l
� m : . • �W-$ - t�l�i
* e :� nrt n��H iIIIII m�
12 Plans for porches. J. N. L.
Duand, 1809.

13 Plan combinations. J. N. L.
Durand, 1809.

14 Facade combinations. J. N. L.
Durand, 1809.

14

17
 15 Prototype for a fairground.
J. N. L. Durand, 1809.

Re:ueil et parallele des ediices de tout genre . . . 9 in

which temples, churches, squares, and markets were cat­
egorized according to their program or use-categories
which interested him more than their orms and more
than any related questions of style or language.

But in proposing a list of models, and afterward deining

the rules and principles of composition, Durand's work
anticipated the nineteenth century's theoretical approach
to architectw·e: a knowledge based on history as a quarry
of available material, supported by an idea of composition
suggested by Dw·and's principles, elaborated and later
inalized in the Beaux Arts architectural system of the
last years of the century. Durand would have understood,
no doubt, why the battle of styles exploded with such
virulence in the middle of the centw·y. "Style" was some­
..,_.
, ....n ..M.

thing that could be added later, a inal ormal characteri­ •·N·

t �..
n.
,�
zation given to the elements cifte1· the structm·e of the
building had been deined through a composition, which
somehow relected its program.

Durand thereby ofered a simple enough method of coping

with the programs and the new building requirements
demanded by a new society. The demand that the object
be repeatable was superseded by a new and diferent
point of view whose basis was not sought in the nature of
the architectural object. The conditions and attributes of
the object itself which were central to Quatremere's in­
L r:.5..
quiries ceased to be critical. It was the immediate respon­
sibility of the architectw·al object as a theoretical instru­
ment with an institutionalized role to make itself
comprehensible as a product. Without doubt this new ap­
proach to architecture was related to the appearance of 15
schools; as the product of the architect, architecture
needed a body of doctrine-an idea of composition rein­
orced by a broade1· network of examples either of build-
ings or of single elements.

Dhe handbooks and manuals which began to appear in the

nineteenth century, ollowed Durand's teachings, simply
displayed the material available to the profession, classi­
fying buildings by their function in a way that could be
called typological. But however much well-deined single

18
32 elements and vague and imprecise schematic plans or he constructs a building characterized not by its use-as
various kinds of prognms seemed to beget generic partis a school, hospital, church, etc. in the manner of the nine­
and thus seemed to suggest type orms, that total and teenth century-but a "space" in which an activity is pro­
indestructible ormal structure which has been defined as duced only later. From this point of view, the I. I. T. cam­
type was irrevocably lattened. It had become a mere pus must be understood more as a space-a physical
compositional and schematic device. fragment of a conceptual space-than as a set of buildings
submitted to a process of architectural composition. The
III space is simply made available, it could be a church as
When, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a new well as a school.- Mies was distw·bed neither by functions
sensibility sought the renovation of architecture, its first nor materials; he was a builder of orm-space.
point of attack was the academic them·y of architecture
established in the nineteenth century. The theoreticians Even when he designed a number of houses with the
of the Moden Movement rejected the idea of type as it generic and quasi-typological designation of "cow·tyard
had been understood in the nineteenth century, or to houses" (fig. 17), the designation was more an allusion to
them it meant immobility, a set of restrictions imposed on a well-known type than a reduplication of it. These houses
the creator who must, they posited, be able to act with are in the end deined by the way in which the architect
V cpmplete f eedom on 1the object. Thus when Gropius dis­
r
has materialized space; the court itself does not structure
pensed with history, 0 claiming that it was possible to theil' disposition: in them, space takes precedence over
undertake both the process of design and positive con­ type. Thus the houses are understood as single aesthetic
struction without reerence to prior examples, he was events in which the a1·chitect copes with a new reality.
standing against an architecture structured on typology. Whatever connection they have with the past-in archi­
The nature of the architectw·al object thus changed once tectonic terms, with the type-is carefully avoided in a­
again. Architects now looked to the example of scientists vor of a generic and actual description of the cuent
in their attempt to describe the world in a new way. A world. For Moden Movement architects also wanted to
new architecture must ofer a new language, they be­ ofer a new image of architectw·e to the society that pro­
lieved, a new description of the physical space in which duced it, an image that reflected the new industrialized
man lives. In this new field the concept of type was some­ world created by that society. This meant that a mass­
thing quite alien and unessential. production system had to be introduced into architecture,
thus displacing the quality of singularity and uniqueness
This changed attitude toward the architect's product is of the traditional architectural "object." The type as the
clearly reflected in the work of Mies van der Rohe, in artiicial species described by Quatremere and the type as
which the principles and aspirations of both N eoplasticism the "average" of models proclaimed by the theoreticians
and the Bauhaus are joined, giving a certain degree of of the nineteenth centw·y now had to be put aside; the
generality to the example. His work can be interpreted industrial processes had established a new relationship
as an uninterrupted attempt to characterize a generic between production and object which was ar removed
space, which could be called the space, of which architec­ rom the experience of any precedents. Taken to its logical
ture is simply the materialization. According to this no­ conclusion, such an attitude toward mass production was
tion, the architect's task is to capture the idealized space in clear contradiction to the Modern Movement's own
through the definition of its abstract components. Like preoccupation with the unique spatial object. But with
the physicist, the architect must first know the elements regard to the idea of type, both aspects of Moden Move­
of matter, of space itself. He is then able to isolate a ment theory, however contradictory, coincided in their
portion of that space to orm a precise building. In con­ rejection of type as a key to understanding the architec­
structing his building, he seizes this space and in doing so tural object.

19
 16 La ille Contporaine, project.
Le Corbusier, 1922.

Mass production in architecture, focused chiely on mass

housing, permitted architecture to be seen in a new light.
Repeatability was desirable, as it was consonant with
industry. "The same constructions or the same require­
ments;" Bruno Taut wrote,' ' and now the word "same"
needed to be understood ad litteram. Industry required
repetition, series; the new architectw·e could be pre-cast.
Now the word type-in its primary and original sense of
permitting the exact reproduction of a model-was trans­
ormed from an abstraction to a reality in architecture, by
viitue of industry; type had become prototype.

This could be seen in Le Corbusier's work where the

contradiction between architecture as a single and unique
event and architecture as a process of elaboration of in­
dustrial prototypes is clearly marked. From the begin­
ning, Le Corbusier was interested in this condition of an
industrial prototype allowing or limitless repetition. The
Dom-ino house, of all the "industrialized" schemes pro­
posed by Le Corbusier in the twenties and early thirties,
insists on this theme as do the towers in the Plan Voisin
or in the Ville Radieuse (ig. 16). Later, the Unite
d'Habitation becomes a clear example of such an attitude:
it can be readapted-Marseilles, Nantes, Berlin-without
alteration; it is a imit, the result of actoTy production
pocess, capable of being sent anywhere. In Le Corbu­
sier's theory, the building industry should be analogous to
the auto industry; like primitive architectw·e, but now
through the industrial process, the new architecture
should retun to its ormer status as a typal instrument.

This new idea of type efectively denied the concept of

type as it had been conceived in the past. The singularity 16
of the architectural object which in the nineteenth century
had permitted adaptability to site and flexibility or use
within the framework of a structure was violently denied
by the new architecture, committed to architecture as
mass production.

But there was a third argument against the nineteenth

century's concept of typology. This argument was pro­
vided by functionalism. Functionalism-the cause/effect
relationship between requirements and orm-seemed to

20
 17 Courtyard houses, plan. Mies 18 Vict01·ian era row houses, 20 Anaysis of building plans.
van der Rohe, 1988. Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Alexander Klein, 1934.

19 Single family house plans and

circulation digrams. Alexander
Klein, 1994.

28 34

,-,•,,I_

17 19

18 20

21
provide the rules for architecture without recow·se to Their sta1ting point was the site of the Moden Move­ 3[
precedents, without need or the historical concept of ment's ailure: the traditional city.
type. And, although functionalist theory was not neces­
sarily coincident with the other two attitudes already de- IV
scribed, all three had in common the rejecti'on of the past Against the ailure of the Moden Movement to use type
as a orm of knowledge in architectw·e. Yet each ollowed in terms of the city, a new series of writings began to
a diferent path; functionalism was mainly concened with appear in the sixties which called for a theory to explain
method, while the other two dealt with igurative space the ormal and structural continuity of traditional cities.
and production respectively. The unique qualities of each These saw the city as a formal structure which could be
problem, of each precise context for which functionalism understood through its continuous historical development.
seemed to provide a unique resolution, seemed to be posed From this point of view architecture was considered nei­
against the idea of a common structure that characterized ther as the single artistic event proposed by the avant­
type. Architecture was predetermined not by types, but garde nor the industrially produced object, but now as a
by context itself. As an almost inevitable conclusion, ar- process, in time, of building from the single dwelling to
chitectural theories connected with functionalism delib- the total city. Accordingly, in Saverio Mw·atori's Studi
erately rejected typology. per una operante Storia, Urbana di Venezia the urban
texture of Venice was examined, and the idea of type as
Pamcloxically, functionalist theory, which explicitly stood ormal structure became a central idea that demonstt·ated
against typology, also provided the basis or a new un­ a continuity among the diferent scales of the city. For
cle1·standing of the idea of type. This consciousness of type Muratori, type was not so much an abstract concept as an
appears in the wol'k of architects such as Taut, May, element that allowed him to understand the pattem of
Stam, etc., who were grouped around the CIAM congress, growth of the city 1 ·1 as a living organism taking its mean­
and can be ound in a number of writings--e.g. the classic ing primarily from its history. He explained the historical
work by F. R. S. Yorke on The Modern Flat. 12 development of Venice as a concept that would link the
individual elements with the overall form of the city.
The attitude perhaps becomes most explicit in the work These types were seen as the generators of the city and
of Alexander Klein. Klein's attempt to systematize all the implicit in them were the elements that defined all other
elements of the single house in his Das Einfamilienhaus scales; so, or example, in Venice calli, cmn:pi, and cm·ti
was a clear and new approach to the problem (igs. 19, are seen as typal elements which are intimately related
20). i:i While recognizing the value of the type as a struc­ with each other, and each is without meaning if not con­
ture underlying and giving orm to the elements of any sidered as types in themselves.
architecture, he was at the same time able to modify and
explore the type without accepting it as the inevitable This approach, underlining the relationship between the
product of the past. In so doing, he attempted to submit elements and the whole, proposed a morphological method
the elements-identiied now in te1·ms of use-to the ra­ of analysis or undei·standing architecture, which has
tionality of typology by checking dimensions, clarifying ormed the basis or a continued development of typol­
circulation, emphasizing orientation. The type seemed to ogical studies. In the second half of the sixties, it inds its
lose both the abstract and obscure characterization of Qua­ most systematic and complex theoretical development in
tremere and the frozen description of the academics. the work of Aldo Rossi and his circle. But this emphasis
Housing types appeared flexible, able to be adapted to on morphology, reducing typology exclusively to the field
the exigencies of both site and program. For Klein, the of urban analysis, was complemented by a renewed inter­
type, fau· from being an imposition of history, became a est in the concept of type as first postulated by Quake­
working instrument. mere and renewed by "Typologfa" by G. C. A1·gan. 15

22
36 Argan retumed to the origins of the concept, interpreting nesto Rogers, ollowing Argan, was able to oppose the
Quatremere's deinition in a more pragmatic w.y and concept of type-orm to the concept of methodology. 1 6
avoiding the Neoplatonism that it implied. For Argan the Knowledge in architecture, he proposed, implied the im­
type was a kind of abstraction inherent in the use and mediate acceptance of "types." Types were part of a
form of series of buildings. Its identiication, however, framework deined by reality which characte1ized and
inasmuch as it was decliicecl from reality, was inevitably classified all single events. Within this framework, the
an a poster·iori operation. Here Argan difered radically architect worked; his work was a continuous comment on
from Quat1·emere, whose idea of type approached that of the past, on the prior knowledge on which his work was
a Platonic absolute-an a p1·i01i "orm." For Argan it was based. According to Rogers's theory the design process
through the comparison and overlapping of ce1tain ormal sta1ted with the architect's identiication of a type which
regularities that the type emerged; it was the basic orm would resolve the problem ·implicit in the context within
through which series of buildings were related to each which he was working.
other in a comprehensible way. Type, in this sense, could
be deined as the "inner ormal structure" of a building or Of course, the very identiication of such a type was a
series of buildings. But if the type was part of such an choice by virtue of which the architect inevitably estab­
overall structure, how could it be connected with the in­ lished ties with society. By transorming the necessarily
dividual work? The notion of type propounded by Quatre­ "vague, undeined" type in a single act, his work acquired
mere as "something vague, undeined" provided this an­ a certain consistency with a speciic context. From this
swer. The architect could work on types freely because point of view, his work could be seen as a contribution to
there were two moments, "the moment of the typology the contextualization of a more generic type. Thus, the
and the moment of the ormal deinition," which could be development of a project was a process that led from the
distinguished rom one another. For Argan, "the moment abstract type to the precise reality. In other words,
of typology" was the non-problematic moment, implying through the concept of type, the architect was provided
a ce1tain degree of inertia. This moment, which estab­ with an instmment that allowed him to undertake the
lished a necessary connection with the past and with so­ design process in quite a diferent way than that de­
ciety, was in some way a "natural" given, received and manded by the methodologieal approach. Rogers's theory
not invented by the orm-deining a1tist. However, Argan in this way resembled a more traditional approach. It was
gave primacy to the second, the orm deining moment­ Aldo Rossi who in the late sixties bound together the
that is, he did not see typology, although inevitable, as morphological approach of Muratori and the more tradi­
the primary characteristic of architecture. In this way he tional approach of Rogers and Argan through Quatre­
revealed his respect or Modem Movement orthodoxy. mere. In so doing he introduced a more subtle but also
And yet, the very concept of type, as has been seen, problematic notion of type.
opposed both Modem Movement ideoloy and the studies
in design method which became its natural extension in For Rossi the logic of architectural orm lies in a deinition
the sixties. of type based on the jU,:taposition of memory and rea­
son. 1 7 Insoar as architecture retains the memory of those
If, as argued by the methodologists, architecture was the first moments in which man asse1ted and established his
ormal expression of its various 1·equirements, and if the presence in the world through building activity, so type
links between such requirements and reality could be de­ retains the reason of orm itself. The type preserves and
ined, then architecture as a problem of method could be deines the intemal logic of orms, not by techniques or
entirely resolved. Form, however, is in reality a product programs-in act, the type can be called "functionally
of an entirely opposite methodolgy-and not the result of indiferent." In Rossi's idea of architecture, the corridor,
method as was previously understood. 111 this sense, Er- or example, is a primary type; it is indiferently available

23
 to the program of an individual house and to a student observed, and in a sense rediscovered: that is, as an ex­
residence or a school. planation of architecture rom an ideological point of view.
This would allow or the establishment of links between
Because the city, or its builders, has lost its own memory architecture and society. 19 Within this other view, the
and orgotten the value of these primary and permanent architect has, whether he likes it or not, the obligation
types, according to Rossi, the task of architects today is and the duty to deal with ideological content. The types­
to contribute to their recovery. Thus the city Rossi, the the materials with which the architect work-are seen to
silent witness, pictm·es is one in which time seems to be be colored by ideology and assume meaning within the
frozen. If it is unrecognizable as any speciic place, this is structm·al framework in which architectm·e is produced.
because or him there is only one ideal city, illed with In accepting a type, or in rejecting it, the architect is thus
types (rather impure types, but types nonetheless), and entering into the realm of communication in which the life
the history of architecture is none other than its history. of the individual man is involved with that of society. The
architect thus makes his "voluntary decisions" in the
Within the city are contained the principles of the archi­ world of types, and these "voluntary decisions" explain
tectural discipline, and the proof of their autonomy is the ideological position of the architect. As he works with
given by the permanence of types through history. Yet types, his thought and his position are incorporated into
the very silence and autonomy of Rossi's images of these them. If a work of architecture needs the type to establish
types within the ideal city that encloses them gnphically a path or its communication-to avoid the gap between
raise the question of their relation to reality-to a real the past, the moment of creation, and the world in which
society-and thereby the question of their actualization the architecture is ultimately placed-then types must be
and contextualization. Rossi's types communicate only the starting point of the design process.
with themselves and their ideal context. They become
only mute reminders of a more or less perect past, a past Such an attitude toward typology proposes a new level of
that may not even have existed.
9o+,: M\� IR�ld� meaning or architectural objects in history, one that re­
lates to their place in the public realm and their integral
But another critic, Alan Colquhoun, has suggested that position in society, not as autonomous objects but as ele­
the possibility of a real communication between architec­ ments given lif ¥-t� process of history itself. Thus, in
ture and society is not necessarily precluded by the idea the words of � eorge Kublm "the time of history is too
of type. 18 Indeed, a certain level of reality-which is nec­ eoanse r,d brie "r�enly granular duration sueb /
essary if communication is desired-is centrally concened as the physicists suppose or natm·al time; it is more like t
with types, because it is through the concept of type that a sea occupied by innumerable orms of a inite number of
the process of communication is made possible. Thus, de­ types." 20 The history of art, and thereore the history of
nying the possibility of an architecture unrelated to intel­ architecture, would be the description of the "life" of these
ligible orms of the past-that is unrelated to types­ types.
Colquhoun understands architectm·e as a discipline of con­
ventions; but precisely because of its conventionality, it V
is arbitrary and thereore susceptible to voluntary But despite this rediscovery of the concept of type in
changes. In other words, the architect masters meaning recent years, it is perhaps not so easy to ind it accepted
and, throug·h it, he is able to enter into the process of as an active fact in contemporary architecture. We are
society's transformation. continually being presented with ideas and images of type
/ which seem to be in complete disjunction with their sup-
/ Colquhoun's, definition of type as a support of intelligibility posed realization. Thus while Louis Kahn's search2' or
presents another possibility from which typology can be origins as a primary condition of architecture allowed us

24
 21 Catasta plan of Rome shoing
te area of the Pmta di Ripetta, the
Cm·so, and the 0'pedale di San
Giacomo degli Incurabile, 1807.

38 to think in terms of a possible rebiith of Quatremere's

ideas, this attitude was not necessa1;1y present in the
work of his followers. They merely imitated the language
of this attempted retun to origins without respecting the
search itself. While it is also true that the impact of the
structw·alist approach to the type concept has been per­
vasively present in a large number of projects connected
with the recent Neo-rationalist movement, most of these
projects conirm the existence of a new typological atti­
tude dialectically opposed to the context in which they
act. 22 Iowever these projects present an important ques­
tion. Can the same definition of type which enabled these
' architects to explain the growth and continuity of the
traditional city in terms of its formal structure be used to
propose new "types" in contradiction to this structure?
That is, can such new projects be considered as strictly
tYPological if they merely explain the growth of the old
cities? In the works of the Krier brothers the new vision
of the city ce1tainly incorporates the structural component
implicit in the typological approach to the old city; the
city that they draw is a complex space in which the rela­
tionship and continuity between the different scales of
elements is the most characte1;stic featw·e (igs. 25, 29).
But they are in reaHty providing only a "typological view"
of this city: they are not building the city itself by using
the concept of type. Thus, the relationship between city
and place, city and time, that was earlier resolved by
tYPeS has been broken. The city that grows by the suc­
cessive addition of single elements, each with its own
integrity, has been lost orever. The only altenative now
seems to be the reprouction of the old city. The concept
of type that was observed in the old city is used to struc­
21 ture the new orms, providing them with ormal consist-
ency, but no more than that. In other words, typology
today has come to be understood simply as a mechanism
of composition. The so-called "typological" research today
merely results in the production of images, or in the re­
constitution of traditional typologies. In the end it can be
said that it is the nostalgia or types that gives ormal
consistency to these works.

The "impossibility" of continuity, and thus of the l'etrieval

of type in its most traditional and characteristic sense, is

25
 22 William Stone Building,
Peterhouse College, Cambridge. Sir
Leslie Martin and Colin St. John
Wilson, 1963. Typical ff.oor plan.

23 Apartment tower, Bremen, West

Gerniany. Alvar Aalto, 1958-1962.

1�
underlined by the renewed emphasis on communication­
on meaning and signiication in architecture. An example
of this can be ound in the work of Robert Venturi. For
example, in his houses in Nantucket the typical image of I,
the wooden American house is clearly sought (igs. 26,
2). Nevertheless, while Venturi seems to have tried to
maintain the image of the vernacular house on the outside,
the inner structure lacks any resemblance to or memory
of the old. Only the outer image remains, and into this
image Venturi introduces as many elements as he needs­
windows, staircases, etc.-without much concern or his
original model. Thus, these houses deined by image con­
tain a great variety of elements characterized only by
their generality, and while these elements are almost
standard, they are lacking in any kind of explicit relation­
ship with the ormal structure. The architect handles them
as known materials, entities in themselves, without feel­ 22
ing the necessity to establish any linkage to a continuous
ormal structure. Moreover, in spite of the generality of
the elements, the houses are very precise and singular
events and can be considered neither the expression of a
known type nor a potentially bold appearance of a new
prototype.

For Venturi, type is reduced to image, 01· better, the

image is the type, in the belief that through images com­
munication is achieved. As such, the type-image is more
concened with recognition than with structure.

The result is an architecture in which a unifying image is

recognized whose elements belong clearly to architectural

i
history, but in which the classic interdependence of the
elements is deinitively lost. The type as inner ormal 28
structure has disappeared, and as single architectural ele­
ments take on the value of type-images, each becomes
available to be considered in its sing·leness as an inde­
pendent fragment.

Here, in act, one is confronted with a broken structure,

shattered into ormally autonomous pieces. Venturi has
intentionally broken the idea of a typological unity which
or centuries dominated architecture. He inds, however,
and not without shock, that the image of architecture

26
 24 Competition project .for a
residential dist-ict, Sein Rocco,
Monza. Aldo Rossi, with Giorgio
Grassi, 1966.

40 emerges again in the broken mirror. Architecture, which

in the past has been an imitative a1t, a description of
nature, now seems to be so again, but this time with
architect1.,re itse(f" as a 1nodel. Architecture is indeed an
imitative art, but now imitative of itself, relecting a rag­
mented and discontinuous reality.

The architectw·e of Rossi initially seems to stand against

this discontinuity. For here the unifying ormal structure
of type disappears. In spite of Rossi's strenuous deense
of the concept of type in the constl'Uction stage of his
work, a subtle ormal dissociation occurs and the unity of
the ormal structure is broken. This dissociation is ex­
empliied in Rossi's house, where the almost wall-like

,,_,
structure of the plan is connected with the pilotis below
and the vaulted roof above. There is an almost deliberate
provocation in this breakdown and recombination of types.
In a highly sophisticated manner, Rossi reminds us of our
24 knowledge-and also our ignoranceof types; they ap­
pear broken, but bearing unexpected power. It might be
said that a nostalgia or an impossible orthodoxy emerges
out of this architecture. In the work of Rossi, and even
that of Ventw·i, a discomforting thought a1ises: was it not
perhaps at the very point when the idea of type became
clearly articulated in architectural theory-at the end of
the eighteenth centw·y-that the reality of its existence,
its traditional operation in history, became inally impos­
sible? pid not the historical awareness of the fact of type
in architectural theoy orever bar the unity of is pc­
ice?
- Or to put it another way, is not the theoretical
recognition of a fact the symptom of its loss? Hence the
extreme diiculty of applying the concept of type to cur­
rent architecture, in spite of our awareness of its value in
explaining a historical tradition.

Changes in techniques and society-and thereore in the

relationship between an institutionalized proession and
its architectural product-have led to a deep transor­
mation in the old theoretical pattems. The continuity in
structure, activities, and orm which in the past allowed
or the consistent use of types has been seriously broken
in modern times. Beyond this, the general lack of faith
which characterizes the present world in any collective

27
 25 Leinfelden project. Leon K1ier1
1971.

and widely shared opinion naturally does not support the

ixing of types.

It seems that type can no longer deine the conrontation

of intenal ideology and external constraints. Since ormal
structul'e must now support itself without the help of
extenal circumstances (techniques, uses, etc.), it is
hardly surprising that architecture has taken heed of itself
and looked for self-protection in the variety of images
ofered by its history. As Hannah Arendt has written
recently, "something very similar seems at irst g'iance to
be true of the moden scientist who constantly destroys
authentic semblances without, however, destroying his
own sensation of reality, which tells him, as it tells us,
that the sun rises in the morning and sets in the eve­
ning." 2" The only sensation of reality left fo1· architectU1·e
today resides in its history. The world of images provided
by history is the only sensible reality that has not been
destroyed by scientiic knowledge or by society. The bro­
ken types are the "authentic semblances" of this reality,
broken through the long process that has been described
briefly in these pages. Fragmentation seems to be in these
clays the concomitant of type; it is, in the end, the only
remaining weapon left to the architect after having given
over to the architectural object its own single identity,
while orgetting, very often, the speciicity of the work of
architecture.

The oject-irst the city, then the building itself-once

broken and fragmented, seems to maintain its ties with
the traditional discipline only in images of an ever more
distant memory. Thus, the culmination of the process be­
ginning in a classic, post-Renaissance condition of orm­
type is its total destruction. The traditional typological
approach, which has tried to recover the old idea of ar- 25
chitecture, has largely ailed. Thus, perhaps the only
means architects have to master orm today is to destl'Oy
it.

Ultimately, the question which remains is, does it make

sense to speak of type today? Perhaps the impossibility of
directly applying old definitions to new situations has been
demonstrated, but this does not mean, however, that the

28
 26 riibeck house, plans. Ventui
and Rauch, 1970.

27 Tubeck ad islocki houses,

Nantucket, Massachusetts. Ventu1i
and Rauch, 1970. Elevations of
Tubeck house.

28 House pject, "Casa Baj." Aldo

Rossi, 1970.
42

26

28

29
29 Echtemach project. Leon Krier,
1970.

30
44 intel'est and value of the concept of type is thereby denied lem has been responsible or a certain ,·ediscove!'y of Klein's
completely. To understand the question of type is to un­ wo,·ks. A cleal' example of this trend would be the book by
G. Grassi, Lei cost·ruzione loµica dell'a rchilett·nn (Padua, 1967).
derstand the natul'e of the al'chitectural object today. It 14. Savel'io Muratori, Studi· pe1· nna op era.nte stol'ict iirbana di
is a question that cannot be avoided. The architectural Venez'ia (Rome, 1960). Although Mm·atol'i worked on the subject
object can no longer be considered as a single, isolated in the ifties, the essay was not published until later, first in the
ma�azine Pa llaclio in 1959, and later as a book by the Istituto
event because it is bounded by the world that surrounds PohgTaico dello Stato (Rome, 1960). Muratori's thoughts wel'e
it as well as by its history. It extends its lie to other based on a ty pological idea 8$ tht key concept for understanding
ojects by virtue of its speciic architectural condition, the growth ol the city, but his own intellectual approach, l'ather
idealistic and obscure, did not facilitate the fol'mation of a school.
thereby establishing a chain of related events in which it Mul'atod undel'stood the l'ationality implicit in the concept of
is possible to find common ol'mal stnctures. If architec­ type, but he failed to produce a systematic explanation of it. In
tural objects allow us to speak about both their singleness spite of his effol'ts it nmained an intuition born from an impre­
cise and spiritualistic way of thinking. Mura tori's !'Ole and a cleal'
and their shared eatures, then the concept of type is of intl'oduction to many of these problems can be fotmcl in an a1'ticle
value, although the old definitions must be modiied to by Massimo Scolal'i, "Un contributo per la ondazione della
accommodate an idea of type that can incorporate even scienza urbana," Contros ?etzio, no. 7-8, _1971.
15. The already classica { "Quatremel'e quotation" comes from
the present state, where, in act, subtle mechanisms of G. C. Argan, who intl'Oduced the subject in his al'ticle on "Ti­
relationship are obse1·vable and suggest typological expla­ pologia" in the En ciclo1edia Unive rsale clell'Al'le published by
nations. the Istituto per la Collabol'azione Cultu1·ale, Venice. Later the
text was l'epl'intecl in the book Pi·ogetto e Dest·i?to (Milan, 1965).
16. See E. Rogers, "Esperienza di un Corso Universitario," La
Notes Utopia clel/a Rea .Ila (Bari, 1965). See also Oriol Bohigas's article
1. See the way in which skyscrape1·s have been gl'ouped by "Metodologia y Tipologia," Contl'I, iina Arqniteclwra. culiet-ivada
W. Weisman in his aiticle "A New View of Skysct'ape,· Histol'y,�' (Barcelona, 1969) which follow Rogel's's paths.
The Rise of ai1 A11ter.ccm A?·cli:itecl1,1·e, Edgal' Kaufmann, J1·., 17. There exists a large body of writing on Rossi's work and his
ed. (New Yol'k: The Metl'opolitan Museum of Al't, 1970). idea of type. One complete book with a key to both the writings
2. Such an appl'oach can be found in the wo1·k of C. Norberg­ and the criticism about it is Rossi's Sc1·i.'i, sceti
Schulz, / 11lent1011s 'r A?'Chitect1e (Cambridge, Mass., 1963) and snl/'ar: chitett ·nnt e la citti., ed. Rosaldo Bonicalzi (Milan, 1975).
E:1·fateuce, S71ace, Archilectnre (London, 1971). Fol' him "cen­ Although a dil'ect l'eading of the texts is always the best way to
tl'alization is the actol' common to all domes." know the wot·k, I believe that the articles of E. Bonfanti, "Ele­
3. Thel'e al'e no substantial differences between Renaissance menti e Costruzione. Note sull'architettura di Aldo Rossi," Con­
and nineteenth centul'y domes. They must be conside1·ecl as trospa.z io, no. 10, 1970; and M. Scolari, "Un contributo pel' la
single types because of theil' l'elatively similar image. fondazione della scienza m·bana," al'e of particular interest; also
4. See Bl'uno Zevi's al'guments in Archilell11:1·a in Nnce (Venice, the book of Vittorio Savi, L'ct· 1·chiieltwm cli Aldo Ross'i (Milan,
1960), p. 169. 1976) is of value to Rossi students. Mol'eover it is also impol'tant
5. Brunelleschi's intel'vention in Santa Mal'ia del Fiol'e, Flo,·­ in studying Rossi to pay attention to the wo1·k of people close to
ence, is an evident example. him, like Cal'lo Aymonino (see, for instance, Aymonino's contri­
6. Quat,·eme,·e de Quincy, Dictionna 'e Historiq ue de butions to Cons'icleCizioni sul/et nt.O'lj'olog'ia nrban ci e la tip olo,qia
l 'A1·cllfilectwre (Paris, 1832), pp. 629-30. A complete study of ei'ilizit (Venice, 1964); RcipJ)Ol'ti /.m ?ltOl'f'ologia urbana e tipol­
Quatl'emere's definition and its relationship with the social and og'ia eclil-izici (Venice, 1966); La fonw.zimre clel concetto :i ii­
ideological backgTound can be found in Anthony Vidlel''s al'licle polog'ict eclilizfo (Venice, 1965); .,a cWa di· Pculova (Rome, 1970).
in Opposilio11s, 8, Spl'ing 1977. On Giorgio Grassi, see L. Semerani, G. U. Polessello, et al., _ .,a
7. lb1d., p. 630. Costnizion e logicci clell'architettu:m (Padua, 1967). Finally a
8. J. N. L. Ou,·and, Precis de.� De;ons l'Anldlectul· 'e, XIII good intl'oduction to the pl'oblems SUl'l'Ounding Rossi and the
(Paris, 1805). Tendenza is Massimo Scolal'i's article "Avanguardia e Nuova
9, J, N. L. Dunnd, Recnei/ et Panllele des Ec'i/ices de Ton t Architettul'a," Arc/u:tcttn · ra Razio nale (Milan, 1973),
Ge11l'e, A11cie1ts et Mo clemes, IX (Pal'is, 1801). 18. Alan Colquhoun, "Typology and Design Method," Aren a,
10. See Walter Gl'opius, Scape of Total A1·chilect11,re (New Yo1·k, Jo'ltn.l o( the ArchitectW ' l'ti Association, June, 1967; 1·epub­
1955). lished in Charles Jencks and George Baird, Meaning in AChi­
11. Bruno Taut, Moden Architectw · l'e (London, 1929). tectwre (London, 1969).
12. F. R. S. Yorke, The Moc/J'1·11 Honse (London, 1934); The 19. It is not surprising that an architect as preoccupied with
Mode/'11 Finl (London, 1937), communication as Robe!'t Venturi has paid special attention to
13. Alexander Klein, Da s Ei1i(a:milien lwus (Stuttgart, 1934). Colquhoun's al'ticle. Cf. .,ecim:inr1 from Las Vegas (Cambridge,
The renewed interest in cunent year; by the typological pl'Ob- Mass, 1972).

31