The Project of Autonomy: Politics and Architecture Within and Against Capitalism

Autonomia was an Italian new social movement of the mid-to late-1970s that combined several single-issue activist groupsinto one movement united by a shared belief in maintaining their autonomy from the state. In The Project of Autonomy, architect and educator Pier Vittorio Aureli traces the influence of autonomia on architectural thinking. Aureli examines how post-1968 political events and a rethinking of Marxist theory by intellectuals like Mario Tronti influenced a variety of that era's architectural projects and writings, including Manfredo Tafuri's critique of architectural ideology; architect Aldo Rossi's reinvention of categories in his book The Architecture of the City; as well as Rossi's 1962 government center for Turin.