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

In ten essays and an epilogue, Kenneth Frampton traces 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, 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, showing how for them both constructional form and material character were integral to an evolving architectural expression. 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."

Kenneth Frampton is Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books on architectural theory and history.