Labour, work and architecture

This is an anthology of writings by the architectural critic Kenneth Frampton. It brings together 25 essays and writings from the 1970s to 2001, which focus on 20th-century architecture, dealing with themes and movements in architecture, built works and the architects responsible for these buildings.The essay subjects range from Russian Constructivism to the Case Study houses of West-Coast America. A number of individual architects and buildings are also explored, such as Le Corbusier, Adolf Loos, Louis Kahn, Hans Scharoun´s Philarmonie in Berlin, the Leicester Engineering Building by Stirling, Kahn and Gowen, the Ford Foundation Headquarters by Roche and Dinkeloo Associates, and contemporary Swiss architectural practices.
Contents: Introduction - The predicament of architecture at the turn of the century, Kenneth Frampton. Theory: apropos Ulm - curriculum and critical theory; the Volvo case; labour, work and architecture - the status of man and the status of his objects; towards a critical regionalism - six points for an architecture of resistance; rappel a l´ordre - the case for the tectonic. History: the humanist versus the utilitarian ideal; the work and influence of El Lissitsky; the maison de verre as bachelor machine; team 10 - the vicissitudes of ideology; constructivism - the pursuit of an elusive sensibility; Louis Kahn and the French connection; in spite of void - the otherness of Adolf Loos; the other Le Corbusier - primitive form and the linear city, 1929-52; the Usonian legacy; the legacy of Alvar Aalto - evolution and influence. Criticism: Leicester University Engineering Laboratory; genesis of the Philarmonie; a house of Ivy League values; Moneo´s Paseo; the Bankinter, Madrid; the structural regionalism of Herman Hertzberger; Alvaro Siza - at the still point of the turning world; the synthesis of opposites - the work of Tadao Ando; in the name of the father; minimal moralia - reflections on recent Swiss German production; biography.