Authors’ Comment
The Romanian version of Kenneth Frampton's "Modern Architecture. A Critical History" belongs into a sweeping translation project, “Groundbreaking Books for Architects”, whose mission is to translate those books whose reading is vital for young architects and which, sadly enough, are absent from their bibliography in Romania. Frampton’s essay is the third to be published in this collection.
Acknowledged as one of the milestones of world’s architectural history, Frampton’s study is at once a historic narrative, in the classical sense of the word, that is, scholarly and comprehensive, and an ‘operative’ book (to quote its author), since he takes a both critical and ethical stand meant to give a direction to architecture’s evolution in the future.
Although its didactic value is undeniable, the book readability and attractiveness to the general public lies in its being the most mesmerizing story of Modernity. The first edition of the "Critical History", published in 1980, was updated by three further revised editions, each adding a new chapter, which probably makes the fourth edition into the most important of its kind accessible in the Romanian tongue.
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