A Genealogy of Modern Architecture by Kenneth Frampton:

20th Century Architecture Summary

A Genealogy of Modern Architecture is a written text that critically analyzes and compares the minds between architecture of the modern era. A Genealogy of Modern Architecture is created by Kenneth Frampton, edited by Ashley Simone, and published by company Lars Muller. As we continue to learn more about the different types and ways a building and the people behind those buildings grow and compete, we come fast forward to a very recent time in our history of society in the 20th century just a bit behind where we are now. I chose this written text to summarize because not only is more recent architectural advances by humankind more sensible in my current mind due to the shorter distance in time, but this is the period in which many spectacular creations and ideas have sprouted from the centuries of previous work and knowledge we have been blessed to still have in our databases to use at the click of a button.

At the launch of A Genealogy of Modern Architecture at the New York center for architecture, creator Kenneth Frampton admitted to the crowd that although he had spent a very long time to finish this book, he had not personally visited many of the buildings and structures in his book and may not be one hundred percent accurate in the more statistical side of his text. This may have caused a small problem with the community, however his text was still a success regardless because of the other types of depth in it.

A Genealogy of Modern Architecture first starts out with Frampton explaining the three major factors that he believes play a huge part in the evolution of the modern architectural movement being classical tradition with its abstract tendency,technological, and vernacular. All three of these categories are in here but in varied amounts as we travel through Europe as Le Corbusier noted in the annotated map of his Voyage d’Orient in 1912 and published in L’art décoratif d’aujourd’hui in 1925. Frampton says that the difference between the under kept classism of Le Corbusier’s Patterns in his entry for the Société des Nations competition was to achieve a more rational solution than Hannes Meyer insisting on always using the same egg shaped auditorium, leading to the unresolved contrast between the inclined supports of the shell of the auditorium and its surrounding orthogonal structure.

However, Frampton ends his intro returning to Arendt’s “space of public appearance”. Today we may still assume an ideologically approach to postmodern architecture through sensitive responses to topography, context, climate, and material. Comparing Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Museum and Aalvar Aalto’s Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Frampton speaks about Aalto’s organic infrastructure inside the orthogonal reinforced concrete frame allowing him to provide the best dimensioned ancillary spaces located in the lecture halls. in contrast to Kahn’s need of the width of one vault, disregarding the function. The compared difference pointing to the limits of Kahn’s unreasonable wants of the vault and at the same time showing how structure creation as curved large beams, not vaults, let Kahn unlock a free plan. Frampton states tha architecture is a single culture of material that by its own characteristics of what makes it what it is, has the opportunity to resist the most recent drive to commodify the entire word.

Overall, this written text, as you can see, is not only about the post architecture created by people, but also talks about the contrasts and differences of ideas between the creators and designers of said buildings. This gives a sense of the mind and philosophical intellects that these men spend years upon years crafting and perfecting through not only contrasting discussion but also eventually honest collaboration. architect, historian, and critical thinker,frampton, makes its obvious in this amazing book of intense comparative analysis for what architecture can achieve in the centuries to come.