Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture

by Frampton, Kenneth; Cava, John

• ISBN13: 9780262561495
• ISBN10: 0262561492
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-24
• Publisher: The MIT Press
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Summary

Kenneth Frampton's long-awaited follow-up to his classic A Critical History of Modern Architectureis certain to influence any future debate on the evolution of modern architecture. Studies in Tectonic Cultureis nothing less than a rethinking of the entire modern architectural tradition. The notion of tectonics as employed by Frampton -- the focus on architecture as a constructional craft -- constitutes a direct challenge to current mainstream thinking on the artistic limits of postmodernism, and suggests a convincing alternative. Indeed, Frampton argues, modern architecture is invariably as much about structure and construction as it is about space and abstract form. Composed of ten essays and an epilogue that trace the history of contemporary form as an evolving poetic of structure and construction, the book's analytical framework rests on Frampton's close readings of key French and German, and English sources from the eighteenth century to the present. He clarifies the various turns that structural engineering and tectonic imagination have taken in the work of such architects as Perret, Wright, Kahn, Scarpa, and Mies, and shows how both constructional form and material character were integral to an evolving architectural expression of their work. Frampton also demonstrates that the way in which these elements are articulated from one work to the next provides a basis upon which to evaluate the works as a whole. This is especially evident in his consideration of the work of Perret, Mies, and Kahn and the continuities in their thought and attitudes that linked them to the past. Frampton considers the conscious cultivation of the tectonic tradition in architecture as an essential element in the future development of architectural form, casting a critical new light on the entire issue of modernity and on the place of much work that has passed as "avant-garde." Studies in Tectonic Cultureis a copublication of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies and The MIT Press.

Author Biography

Kenneth Frampton is Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Harry Francis Mallgrave
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Reflections on the Scope of the Tectonic	1	(28)
Greco-Gothic and Neo-Gothic: The Anglo-French Origins of Tectonic Form	29	(32)
The Rise of the Tectonic: Core Form and Art Form in the German Enlightenment, 1750-1870	61	(32)
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Text-Tile Tectonic	93	(28)
Auguste Perret and Classical Rationalism	121	(38)
Mies van der Rohe: Avant-Garde and Continuity	159	(50)
Louis Kahn: Modernization and the New Monumentality, 1944-1972	209	(38)
Jorn Utzon: Transcultural Form and the Tectonic Metaphor	247	(52)
Carlo Scarpa and the Adoration of the Joint	299	(36)
Postscriptum: The Tectonic Trajectory, 1903-1994	335	(42)
The Owl of Minerva: An Epilogue	377	(12)
Notes	389	(24)
Bibliography	413	(10)
Illustration Credits	423	(2)
Index	425