Kenneth Frampton; edited by John Cava

"Kenneth Frampton's book approaches a very importantissue for understanding the way in which architects proceed: the continuity between form and construction. But to establish this continuity doesn't simply mean to accept pure constructive determinism, and Frampton's book helps us to comprehend that beside whatever technical discovery there is always the architect's effort to produce form. Using the work of outstanding contemporary architects such as Utzon and Scarpa, Frampton is able to show how architectural talent is manifested in continuous form invention." Rafael Moneo , Professor of Architecture, Harvard University "Kenneth Frampton's book approaches a very important issue for understanding the way in which architects proceed: the continuity between form and construction. But to establish this continuity doesn't simply mean to accept pure constructive determinism, and Frampton's book helps us to comprehend that beside whatever technical discovery there is always the architect's effort to produce form. Using the work of outstanding contemporary architects such as Utzon and Scarpa, Frampton is able to show how architectural talent is manifested in continuous form invention." Rafael Moneo, Professor of Architecture, Harvard University

Introduction - reflections on the scope of the tectonic; Greco-Gothic and neo-Gothic - the Anglo-French origins of tectonic form; the rise of the tectonic - core form and art form in the German Enlightenment, 1750-1870; Frank Lloyd Wright and the text-tile tectonic; Auguste Perret and classical rationalism; Mies van der Rohe - avant-garde and continuity; Louis Kahn - modernization and the New Monumentality, 1944-1972; Jorn Utzon - transcultural form and the tectonic metaphor; Carlo Scarpa and the adoration of the joint; postscriptum - the tectonic trajectory, 1903-1994; the owl of Minerva - an epilogue.

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.