Conversando con... KENNETH FRAMPTON

Abstract

[EN] Well-known for his great contribution to architectural criticism and his very extensive teaching, Kenneth Frampton is, above all, an architect with an exquisite sensitivity in all areas that include architecture. An Architect since 1956 for the Architectural Association School of London, he has worked half his life in New York, which he referred to as ¿the dirty guts of the United States¿. He has been Associate Professor in Universities like Princeton; a Visiting Professor in most of the world; and from 1974 he has been a Ware Professor of Architecture in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at Colombia University in New York. Every architect knows his writing and every researcher has, as part or his or her reference bibliography, his books and articles due to their philosophical and critical interest. Also, I don¿t need to mention the quality and variety of his lectures, which after more than three decades, continue to retain all their validity, and are followed by many architects. He creates excitement wherever he goes and I wonder¿ what is Kenneth Frampton¿s secret? What causes him to make any enthusiast of architecture, who read his work or who like me have had the good fortune to listen to him speak, shudder with excitement? Maybe the key is his tireless research work¿ never anchored in what is already known, but also exploring new concepts; never focused on a particular field of architecture, but also studying within the global framework; never understood only from the educational aspect, but also analysing from the specialcharacteristics and peculiarities of each culture.

[ES] Conocido por sus grandes aportaciones a la crítica arquitectónica y por su extensísima labor docente, Kenneth Frampton es, por encima de todo, un arquitecto de exquisita sensibilidad en todas las facetas que engloban la arquitectura. Arquitecto desde 1956 por la Architectural Association de Londres, lleva más de media vida trabajando en Nueva York, en lo que el ha denominado "las tripashoy sucias de los Estados Unidos". Ha sido Profesor Asociado en universidades de la talla de Princeton, Profesor Visitante en medio mundo y desde 1974 está a cargo de la Cátedra Ware en la Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) de la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. Todo arquitecto conoce sus escritos y cualquier investigador que se preste, tiene como parte de su bibliografía de consulta sus librosy artículos por el interés filosófico y crítico que despiertan. Tampoco hace falta mencionar la variedad y calidad de sus clases magistrales, que después de más de tre sdécadas, siguen conservando toda su vigencia y son seguidas po rmultitud de arquitectos. Allá donde va crea expectación y yo mepregunto, ¿cuál es el secreto de Kenneth Frampton? ¿Qué provoca que siga estremeciendo a cualquier entusiasmado de la arquitectura que lea su obra, o a quienes como yo tienen la suerte de poder escucharlo? Quizá la clave esté en su incansable labor investigadora nunca anclada en lo ya conocido, sino explorando nuevos conceptos; nunca centrada en un campo concreto de la arquitectura, sino estudiada desde la globalidad: y nunca entendida únicamente desde la universalidad, sino analizada desde las particularidades decada cultura.