«La mia città ideale, mi sia consentito, è un’entità definita, circondata da mura» Aldo Rossi e il quartiere residenziale Barialto tra limite, hortus conclusus e parti di città

The project for the Barialto district is part of a series of architectural proposals developed by Rossi in Puglia, between the early nineties and the time of his tragic death in 1997. These projects are all widely documented in the archives dedicated to Rossi and in numerous anthological publications. They are the result of a profound reflection on the architecture of this region: from the imposing Romanesque cathedrals to the severe majesty of the Norman-Swabian fortifications and the white rural buildings of small towns. The Barialto is a project inspired, therefore, by the best European architectural tradition, from the tradition of the garden city to the one of the English new towns. This building, however, is also confronted with the typicality of local settlements and, therefore, with the characteristics of the entire Mediterranean civilization: from the "classical" matrix in the relationship with the open space of the countryside, to the dimension more linked to the rural and autochthonous tradition, from the idea of the magnificence of civil architecture to the pauperism of the many examples of rural tradition. In this project, we can distinguish a poetic core of reference around which the construction of an overall image of the city is realized. A city recalling a larger urban organism in relation to which it assumes the connotations of a Hortus conclusus: both a metaphor of living and a microcosm of the city.