On Architecture’s Limits

“We simply seem to lack all capacity to talk about architecture qua architecture, because the entire space is taken up by justifiable anxiety about racial and social injustice, and the maldistribution of wealth, and climate change, et cetera, as though architecture qua architecture can do anything about any of that.” With these cheery remarks, Kenneth Frampton concluded his lecture at the New School, which had been billed as a revisiting of his chief contribution to the history of architecture—critical regionalism. But for the most part, the nonagenarian’s talk meandered wildly, as the audience was treated to a best-of from the Framptian oeuvre; specifically, he appears steadfast in his preoccupation with Aalto, Utzon, and Siza, and committed to ritually elaborating his canonical text, Modern Architecture: A Critical History. Hints of a wider critique, however, only materialized at around the event’s end. “Architectural schools,” Frampton said, “are in a very difficult position at this moment and are trying to compensate for the disorder of the society within the hou…