Frampton is especially well known for his writing on twentieth-century architecture, and for his central role in the development of architectural phenomenology. His books include Modern Architecture: A Critical History and Studies in Tectonic Culture. Frampton achieved great prominence in architectural education with his essay "Towards a Critical Regionalism" — though the term had already been coined by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre. In this paper, he mounts a criticism toward globalisation, mass consumer culture and the impact that this has had on architecture. For Frampton, this represents a particularly salient issue within the modern movement, as it has pushed architecture toward mediocrity, sameness and limited urban form which lacks any kind of cultural celebration or diversity. To remedy this, Frampton argues that the adoption of a more critical regionalist approach is required in architecture, one that takes into account specific considerations to place, topography, climate, and culture. Frampton's essay was included in the book The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture, edited by Hal Foster, though Frampton is critical of postmodernism. Frampton's own position attempts to defend a version of modernism that looks to either critical regionalism or a 'momentary' understanding of the autonomy of architectural practice in terms of its own concerns with form and tectonics which cannot be reduced to economics. He summed up his critical stance towards postmodernist architecture and its advocates' belief in the primacy of architecture as a language as follows: In 2002 a collection of Frampton's writings over a period of 35 years was collated and published under the title Labour, Work, and Architecture. In addition to his own scholarly research and criticism, Frampton has frequently furthered the intellectual reach of his work through writing introductions, prefaces and forewords for other authors and publications on allied themes.
Select list of Frampton's writings
"Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance", in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. edited by Hal Foster, Bay Press, Port Townsen.
Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1995.
Labour, Work and Architecture. Phaidon Press, London, 2002.
"Ando at the Millennium", in Tadao Ando: Light and Water. Book Design by Massimo Vignelli. The Monacelli Press, New York, 2003.
The Evolution of 20th-Century Architecture: A Synoptic Account. Springer, New York, 2006.
FRAMPTON K., STRAUVEN F., GÜBLER J. & VERPOEST L., Georges Baines, Ludion, Gent, 2006.
Modern Architecture: A Critical History , Thames & Hudson, London, Fourth Edition.
American Masterworks: Houses of the Twentieth & Twenty-First Centuries, edited by David Larkin. Rizzoli, New York.
Five North American Architects: An Anthology by Kenneth Frampton, Lars Muller, Zurich,.
Genealogy of Modern Architecture: A Comparative Critical Analysis of Built Form, Lars Muller, Zurich,.
L'Altro movimento Moderno. Edited by Ludovica Molo. Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2015.
Writings on Kenneth Frampton
D. Sherer, "Architecture in the Labyrinth. Theory and Criticism in the United States: Oppositions, Assemblage, ANY," Zodiac 20, 36–63.
Jorge Otero-Pailos, "Architecture's Historical Turn: Phenomenology and the Rise of the Postmodern." University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,, 183–250.
Tom Avermaete, Veronique Patteeuw, Hans Teerds, Lea-Catherine Szacka, Oase #103: Critical Regionalism Revisited,,.
