Select reading 15a.

Due: April 28, 2003

15a. Kenneth Frampton, "Introduction: Reflections on the Scope of the Tectonic," Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture

1. Frampton contrasts the understanding of architecture as "space" versus the expression of its "constructional and structural modes." In your view, are these two modes of understanding in conflict?

2. Frampton suggests that Semper's division of architecture into tectonic and stereotomic applies to a great many examples, even where the stereotomic (earthwork) is reduced to mere foundations or where the tectonic (lightweight articulated timber frame) virtually disappears within a stereotomic composition of walls, floors and roof. Do you agree that Semper's model is still useful under these varying circumstances?

3. Frampton puzzles over the fact that even in Paxton's Crystal palace, the seeming interdependence of "structure and construction" is contradicted by the hidden changes in cast iron thickness that accomodate changing loads. Do you think that an architecture without such "contradictions" is possible?