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Revista de Arquitectura accepted for inclusion in SciELO Chile collection
Call for papers 2026 Revista de Arquitectura N.º 50. + N.º 51.
Call for papers Revista de Arquitectura N.°50
ARCHITECTURE AND INVESTIGATION + FREE THEME
50th Issue | 35th Anniversary
Deadline for paper submissions: March 2, 2026
https://dearquitectura.uchile.cl/index.php/RA/announcement/view/396
No. 51. CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURES AND URBAN PROJECTS:
New Themes and Dimensions of the City + FREE THEME.
Deadline for paper submissions: June 22, 2026
https://dearquitectura.uchile.cl/index.php/RA/announcement/view/397
The theoretical transition of Kenneth Frampton: critical regionalism, tectonics and transcultural form
Authors
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Thaís Piffano-Oliveira
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7085-7809
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Priscilla Alves-Peixoto
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7809-2633
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Abstract
This article investigates Kenneth Frampton’s theoretical trajectory, with particular attention to the transition between the concepts of “critical regionalism” and “tectonics.” Drawing on texts published throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the expanded fourth edition of Modern Architecture: A Critical History, the study seeks to understand how Frampton reworks his conceptual vocabulary in response to the cultural, social, and political tensions and critiques of his time. Rather than signaling a rupture, this shift is interpreted as part of a continuous theoretical project — a critical agenda in transformation, yet committed to defending a modern architecture attentive to material and cultural specificities, in contrast to the logics of homogenization. The proposed reading articulates the theoretical-methodological frameworks of conceptual history and intellectual biography, in order to observe how certain terms and notions are mobilized, displaced, and resignified throughout the author’s work. The article is thus engaged in a mode of historical writing attentive to the textual construction of terms, words, and notions that are simultaneously implicated in the course of a lived life. By analyzing the frictions between language, critique, and context in Frampton’s writings, the article argues that his change in vocabulary may also be read as a form of self-critique and as a response to the demands of a more contextually aware architectural thought in the contemporary world.
Keywords:
Transcultural form , Kenneth Frampton , critical regionalism , tectonicsReferences
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