Modern Architecture: A Critical History (5th edition)

Abstract

A fifth expanded edition of Kenneth Frampton’s Modern Architecture: A Critical History, the bestseller textbook in schools of architecture worldwide, was published last year, exactly forty years since its first edition was released in 1980. According to Panayotis Tournikiotis, ‘the additions and changes made to’ earlier history books on modern architecture are considered ‘of the greatest significance’. This is particularly evident in the case of Sigfried Giedion’s Space, Time, and Architecture, of which the last version of 1967 ‘does not have the originality of the first’ edition of 1941; yet, it formed our general understanding of the Modern Movement. We could possibly say the same about Frampton’s critical history. Beginning with the inclusion of a celebrated new chapter on ‘critical regionalism’ in the second edition (1985), Frampton has consistently continued to add a chapter to the end of each updated edition, broadening his historiographical scope. Specifically, the chapter ‘World Architecture and Reflective Practice’was added to the third edition (1992), and the chapter ‘Architecture in the Age of Globalization: Topography, Morphology, Sustainability, Materiality, Habitat and Civic Form 1975–2007’ was added to the fourth one (2007). Lastly, in the fifth edition, he newly introduced ‘Part IV: World Architecture and the Modern Movement’ with four chapters on transcontinental regions (‘The Americas’, ‘Africa and the Middle East’, ‘Asia and the Pacific’, and ‘Europe’) to demonstrate the diversity of world architecture, continent by continent and country by country. (The new chapters added up to the fourth edition comprised ‘Part III: Critical Assessment and Extension into the Present 1925–2007’.) A total of 250 pages (pp. 367–616) were allotted to this new part, which occupies over 40% of the main text (pp. 13–642). In fact, Part IV is an aggressive expansion of the penultimate chapter ‘World Architecture and Reflective Practice’ of the previous edition, while the final ‘Architecture in the Age of Globalization’ is now presented as an ‘Afterword’ following Part IV with almost the same content. Furthermore, this edition includes two new chapters—on Czechoslovakia and France between the two world wars—in ‘Part II: A Critical Review by Hyon-Sob Kim Department of Architecture Korea University Seoul, South Korea archistory@korea.ac.kr 938 Review