Kenneth Frampton honored with 2019 Soane Medal

Kenneth Frampton, (British architect, critic, historian, and Columbia GSAPP Ware Professor of Architecture), has been announced by Sir John Soane's Museum in London as the recipient of the third Soane Medal for his contribution in the field of architecture and he will deliver a lecture at a special event, which will take place on November 11 at LSE’s New Academic Building, on Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London.

Previously bestowed to Denise Scott Brown and Rafael Moneo, the medal distinguishes architects and critics who have made a major contribution and lasting influence to the field whether through practice, education, history, or theory, and have therefore enriched public understanding of architecture.

Kenneth Frampton. Photograph by Alex Fradkin, cortesy Sir John Soane's Museum

Over the last 50 years, Frampton has worked in the unique position of being an architect, writer, critic, and educator. His ideas have influenced many students and architects, particularly around issues of context and culture.

Some of his most well-known texts include the seminal “Towards a Critical Regionalism” (1983), “Studies in Tectonic Culture” (1995), and “Modern Architecture: A Critical History”.

He has taught at several leading institutions, written numerous essays on modern and contemporary architecture, and has served on international juries for architectural awards and building commissions. Last year, Frampton was recognized with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

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Kenneth Frampton at GSAPP (2014). CC BY 2.0

Kenneth Frampton. Imagen cortesía de la Bienal de Venecia

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Kenneth Frampton

Kenneth Frampton (1930) studied architecture at Guildford School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. Subsequently he worked in Israel, with Middlesex County Council and Douglas Stephen and Partners (1961–66), during which time he was also a visiting tutor at the Royal College of Art (1961–64), tutor at the Architectural Association (1961–63) and Technical Editor of the journal Architectural Design (AD) (1962–65).

Frampton has also taught at Princeton University (1966–71) and the Bartlett School of Architecture, London, (1980). He has been a member of the faculty at Graduate School of Architecture and Planning of Columbia University since 1972, and that same year he became a fellow of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York -- (whose members also included Peter Eisenman, Manfredo Tafuri and Rem Koolhaas) -- and a co-founding editor of its magazine Oppositions.

Frampton is a permanent resident of the USA.

Frampton is well known for his writing on twentieth-century architecture. His books include Modern Architecture: A Critical History (1980; revised 1985, 1992 and 2007) and Studies in Tectonic Culture (1995). Frampton achieved great prominence (and influence) in architectural education with his essay "Towards a Critical Regionalism" (1983) — though the term had already been coined by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre. Also, Frampton's essay was included in a book The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture, edited by Hal Foster, though Frampton is critical of postmodernism. Frampton's own position attempts to defend a version of modernism that looks to either critical regionalism or a 'momentary' understanding of the autonomy of architectural practice in terms of its own concerns with form and tectonics which cannot be reduced to economics (whilst conversely retaining a Leftist viewpoint regarding the social responsibility of architecture).

In 2002 a collection of Frampton's writings over a period of 35 years was collated and published under the title Labour, Work and Architecture.

Published on: September 20, 2019

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