On the Grounds of Modern Architecture: An Interview with Kenneth Frampton

Abstract

In connection with the publication of Kenneth Frampton’s tiv e C ritical Analy sis o f Bui lt F orm , Thomas McQuillan conducted an interview in March of 2016 with A Genealo g y o f M o dern Ar chit e ctur e : C ompar a - Frampton to discuss the book’s background and the implications publication has for contemporary archi- tecture. The book consists of close comparative analyses of 28 modern buildings, two by two, in order to interrogate their spatial, constructive, envelopmental, and programmatic characteristics. Prefaced by a synoptic note, with a highly concentrated exposition of the history of modern architecture, and build- ing on his reading of Arendt’s the book seeks the meaning of architecture in the tectonic — the way it is built — in more than just the spaces it affords and the images that it projects. Frampton shares the history of his ideas on tectonics and the fragility of the modern project in today’s The Human C ondition, neoliberal climate.