Estudios sobre cultura tectónica (Arquitectura/ Architecture)

by Kenneth Frampton, Amaya Bozal (Translator)

Estudios sobre cultura tectónica reescribe la tradición de la arquitectura moderna. La noción de tectónica tal como la emplea Frampton –la visión de la arquitectura como técnica constructiva– constituye un desafío a la corriente convencional de pensamiento sobre los límites artísticos de la posmodernidad. De hecho, dice Frampton, la arquitectura moderna tiene mucho más que ver con la estructura y la construcción que con el espacio y con la forma abstracta. Frampton explica los vaivenes de la ingeniería estructural y la imaginación tectónica en la obra de arquitectos como Perret, Wright, Kahn, Scarpa y Mies, y muestra cómo la forma constructiva así como el carácter material forman parte integral de la expresión arquitectónica evolutiva de las obras. Frampton demuestra además que la articulación de dichos elementos de unas obras constituyen la base desde la cual se puede evaluar el trabajo de un arquitecto como un todo. Esto resulta evidente especialmente en sus reflexiones sobre la obra de Perret, Mies y Kahn, y la continuidad con el pasado en su pensamiento y actitudes.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Design

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Kenneth Frampton is a British architect, critic, historian and the Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York.

Frampton studied architecture at Guildford School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. Subsequently he worked in Israel, with Middlesex County Council and Douglas Stephen and Partners (1961–66), during which time he was also a visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art (1961–64), tutor at the Architectural Association (1961–63) and Technical Editor of the journal Architectural Design (AD) (1962–65).
Frampton has also taught at Princeton University (1966–71) and the Bartlett School of Architecture, London, (1980). He has been a member of the faculty at Columbia University since 1972, and that same year he became a fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York -- (whose members also included Peter Eisenman, Manfredo Tafuri and Rem Koolhaas) -- and a co-founding editor of its magazine Oppositions.
Frampton is a permanent resident of the USA.
Frampton is well known for his writing on twentieth-century architecture. His books include Modern Architecture: A Critical History (1980; revised 1985, 1992 and 2007) and Studies in Tectonic Culture (1995). Frampton achieved great prominence (and influence) in architectural education with his essay "Towards a Critical Regionalism" (1983) — though the term had already been coined by Alexander Tzonis and Liliane Lefaivre. Also, Frampton's essay was included in a book The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture, edited by Hal Foster, though Frampton is critical of postmodernism. Frampton's own position attempts to defend a version of modernism that looks to either critical regionalism or a 'momentary' understanding of the autonomy of architectural practice in terms of its own concerns with form and tectonics which cannot be reduced to economics (whilst conversely retaining a Leftist viewpoint regarding the social responsibility of architecture).
In 2002 a collection of Frampton's writings over a period of 35 years was collated and published under the title Labour, Work and Architecture.

Reviews

[Randy Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mandatory re-read every 5-10 years.

[Ջոն (John Goolvart) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Schinkel, as for the younger Gilly and Friedrich Weinbrenner, the land itself was seen as the repository of a primitive identity, and the task of the architect was to adapt his normative typology to the idiosyncrasies of a specific topos. Like Herder, Schinkel felt that this synthesis could only be achieved through a fundamental respect for the character of a place and its people.
Thus he wrote: “The intrinsic form of a monument of any period must maintain a simple character whose roots reach down into the primitive conditions of human culture while at its peak a sublime flower takes form.”

“Before transforming a support into a column, a roof into a tympanum, before placing stone on stone, man placed the stone on the ground to recognize a site in the midst of an unknown universe: in order to take account of it and modify it.” (V. Gregotti)

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do intend on picking this one back up. I merely started reading it back when I had some strange notion that I would read about Modern Architecture in a somewhat chronological manner (thus reading through the Mies chapter, stopping before Kahn). I've since abandoned that madness (I kept creeping backwards in time) so eventually I'll pull this sucker back out...eventually...

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic book, a very thorough look at techtonics. a much needed alternative perspective to a traditional taxonomy of arch. history. highly recommended (also, not for the faint of heart)

[James Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

useful read for insiders - architects, designers, etc. - one rigorous way of looking at the making of architecture and space

[Nemanja Adamovic]

great