Modern Architecture A Critical History

Kenneth Frampton

An extensively revised and updated edition of a bestselling classic on modern architecture and its origins by Kenneth Frampton.

Kenneth Frampton’s highly acclaimed survey of modern architecture and its origins has been a classic since it first appeared in 1980. Starting with the cultural developments since 1750 that drove the modern movement, moving through the creation of modern architecture, and exploring the effects of globalization and the phenomenon of international celebrity architects, this book is the definitive history of modern architecture.

For this extensively revised and updated fifth edition of Modern Architecture, Frampton added new chapters exploring the ongoing modernist tradition in architecture while also examining the varied responses to the urgent need to build more sustainably and create structures that will withstand changing climates. This new edition features completely redesigned interiors and an updated and expanded bibliography, making this volume more indispensable than ever.

Reviews

A magisterial work that maintains its relevance decades after its first edition.

— A Daily Dose of Architecture Books

Contributors

Kenneth Frampton

Author

Kenneth Frampton was born in 1930 and trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. From 1972 to 2019 he served as Ware professor of architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2018, he was awarded the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale. His publications include Studies in Tectonic Culture: the Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century ArchitectureLabour, Work and Architecture: Collected Essays on Architecture and DesignAmerican Masterworks: The Twentieth-Century HouseKengo Kuma: Complete WorksA Genealogy of Modern Architecture: Comparative Critical Analysis of Built FormModern Architecture: A Critical History; and Le Corbusier.