The aim of this essay is to define the meaning of heritage for Zevi by using as starting point his texts on Michelangelo Buonarroti, Francesco Borromini, Frank Llyod Wright, Erich Mendelsohn and Giuseppe Terragni. All of these architects have generated in Zevi a sense of admiration due to their refuse of the status quo and the established order. Through the Zevi’s eye, the architects give an implicit message in which the deep elements of modernity are enclosed. The choice of this resaerches leads to the comprehension of their teaching, beyond schematic precepts and simple interpretation. It is not relevant whether it is Mannerism, Baroque, Functionalism or International Style; the key point is the release from a predefined formal solution to defeat the academy. The way to understand this process is to take out from the texts the condition of being modern. Even if the interpretations of Zevi’s thought can be simply seen as the historicization of organic architecture, nobody can ignore that these will be able to give a universal vision of the Zevi’s idea of modernism.