If there is one book every architecture student must have on their shelf, it must be an architectural history. There is no more comprehensive yet compact alternative than Kenneth Frampton's Modern Architecture: A Critical History, originally published in 1980 by Thames & Hudson. Its much-expanded latest fifth 734-page, 813-illustration edition came out in 2020. In 2023, I discussed the book at length with the author in a video interview, now available on YouTube.
Regarding one compact yet fundamental survey of the evolution of the Modern movement, Modern Architecture: A Critical History is unquestionably the most authoritative, complete, and in-depth chronicle. The most valuable addition to the new book is the introduction of new chapters focusing on regions such as Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, China, India, and Sri Lanka, among others. These chapters shed light on many before-overlooked practices that operated outside of traditional centers of power, namely Western Europe, the United States, and Japan.
In the interview, Frampton, who is now 94 and living in London after a long career as a historian, critic, and educator, primarily at Columbia University in New York, talked in detail about the history of the book and the intentions behind it. He discussed other sources that served him as a model for the first edition and the last, the book's cover, the Modern Movement's origins, and the earliest projects that can be called modern. The book clearly illustrates the diminishing role of the individual in the profession, and Frampton offers his take on this trend. Naturally, we spoke about Russian constructivists, why their projects were missing from many earlier histories, and why Modern Architecture does not have a single photo of any of their buildings, as if it were purely a paper movement.
One of the key points in the conversation is the year 1980. In a way, it brought modern architecture to a close by starting a new chapter, namely, Post-Modernism, which was, of course, in the air for more than a decade by then. Still, the first Architecture Biennale that year, entitled The Presence of the Past with its central installation La Strada Novissima, pushed the discipline into the next paradigm. Did modern architecture end that year? Was it possible to practice it after 1980? Frampton, who was an outspoken critic of the new movement and even famously refused to get involved in the biennale organizers' invitation to participate as a curatorial advisor, thinks today that the shift was fundamental. He is convinced that even Critical Regionalism, which he championed soon after as a direct response to Post-Modernism, is inevitably a shade of Post-Modernism. All architecture after 1980 is. Whatever was done could not be undone. And how would he characterize architecture's contemporary moment? In the conversation, he lays out his thoughts and concerns.
Other topics discussed include the work of Frampton's favorite architect, Alvaro Siza. The historian is fascinated by his aphorisms, particularly this one: "The idea is in the place, not in your head." Of course, whether the driving design idea is in the architect's head or the site is arguable. However, Frampton is convinced that this position to search for the idea in the project's context opens "a door," so to speak. Other topics include another one of his books, Studies in Tectonic Culture (1995), which he admitted he considers his favorite; David Chipperfield's 2012 Common Ground Biennale, Alejandro Aravena's 2016 Reporting from the Front Biennale, and their effects on the profession. We spoke about the decline in architectural education, the discrepancy between the profession and the public, why the public's favorite American building, the Empire State Building, is not in his book, non-spectacular architecture, why Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao is mentioned but not accompanied by an image, and why Gehry's residence in Santa Monica is viewed by Frampton as his best work.
Closer to the conclusion, we discussed new architecture in China, what architects should do now, projects on the margins, the rise of adaptive reuse, Frampton's three most admired architects, and being pathologically addicting to writing.
Kenneth Frampton (b. 1930) is a British American architect, critic, historian, and Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University in New York, where he taught the history of architecture for over 50 years. Apart from Modern Architecture: A Critical History and Studies in Tectonic Culture, Frampton authored A Genealogy of Modern Architecture (2015), Five North American Architects (2012), Kengo Kuma: Complete Works (2013), Alvaro Siza: Complete Works (2000), Le Corbusier: Architect and Visionary (2001), and contributed numerous introductions and essays, including in magazine Oppositions. He lectures widely around the world.
Frampton studied architecture at Guildford School of Art and the AA in London. He practiced architecture in Israel and London, where, while working at the office of Douglas Stephen and Partners, he designed the Corringham Building, a modernist block of apartments in Central London. Apart from Columbia, he taught at the Royal College of Art, the AA, Princeton University, the Barlett School of Architecture, and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York. He was the technical editor of Architectural Design (1962–65). The Canadian Centre for Architecture holds Frampton's archive. In 2021, the historian was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He received the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In 2014, the Lisbon Triennale awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was the recipient of the 2005 Architectural League of New York President's Medal. Frampton's library was acquired by the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong in 2015. The historian now resides in London.
Curator and critic Vladimir Belogolovsky (b. 1970) runs his Curatorial Project in New York. He authored Imagine Buildings Floating Like Clouds, China Dialogues, Architectural Guides Chicago and New York, Conversations with Architects, and Harry Seidler: Lifework, among other books. His exhibitions were shown in more than 30 countries, including at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2008, 2014) and Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial (2017, 2019, 2024). He interviewed more than 500 international architects and now teaches an online seminar, Building Attitudes, at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
