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The concept of tradition from T. S. Eliot literary criticto E. N. Rogers architectural theoryValeria LattanteABC, Politecnico di MilanoIn Pretesti per una critica non formalistica [Pretext for a non formalistic critic] – than republished in Esperienza dell'architettura [Experience of architecture] with the title Tradizione e talento individuale [Tradition and the individual talent]  – the Milanese architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers resort to Thomas Stearns Eliot for explaining that, in order to evaluate the work of an architect easily charged of formalism as Oscar Niemeyer, it was necessary to turn to an "historical sense" that allowed to «situate facts in the right position as regards the coordinates of space and time». On this occasion, for the first time, he suggested the analogy between his idea of tradition and that of the English poet and literary critic. The title of the writing itself followed, in Esperienza dell'architettura, that of the essay in which Eliot explained the meaning he attributed to the concept of "historical sense" and its relevance in the creation of the work of art . The deepening of the mentioned texts allows to interpret Rogers's reference to Eliot's essay Tradition and the individual talent as the architect's adhesion to the idea of tradition as expressed by the critic. Far from limiting oneself to the mere acceptance of the results reached by the previous generations, tradition is a heritage which one seizes with conquest. For this being possible it is necessary to possess an "historical sense". It is a borrowing that permits to express the construction of architecture as a collective work of art thanks to which those features of an architect's work in which he resembles to other architects take value and «more vigorously demonstrate… his ancestors' immortal vitality» .The paper aims to outline the logical foundations that allowed Rogers's theory to share with T. S. Eliot's literary critic instruments capable to offer a new perspective to the critical thinking on Italian architecture post-WWII.&#160;Born in Como in 1981, Valeria Lattante graduated in Architecture at Politecnico di Milano in 2007, after having studied and worked in Amsterdam and Sydney. Since then she is teaching assistant at Politecnico di Milano. She collaborated with different professional offices in Italy and abroad before getting her PhD in Architecture at the Università di Bologna and starting her own professional activity in 2013. She carried out research activity at Università di Bologna and Politecnico di Milano and participated in international architecture congresses.