Kenneth Frampton

Kenneth Frampton's lecture "Habitat Revisited: From Land Form to Corporeal Space" was the
keynote address of the Architectural League's 2002-2003 lecture series, "Habitation." Frampton
argued that settlement must be integrated with landscape, and that interiors must be designed to
respond "both ergonomically and poetically" to the needs of the human body.

Outlining the "contemporary predicament" faced by designers and planners, Frampton suggested
that "despite and even because of our over-estimating technoscientific prowess, any kind of
reasonably homeostatic pattern of land settlement continues to elude us. We are no nearer now
to solving the predicament imposed by limitless megalopolitan development than we were half a
century ago."

Framing Frampton's talk was his two-fold definition of "habitat." "The idea of habitat" he
explained, "is based first upon the extrinsic nature of the land form created by the residential
fabric, and second upon the intrinsic character of its inner corporeal space." For Frampton, these
two must be critically interrelated in the design of any residential settlement so that habitat
becomes "the symbiotic integration of nature and culture."

On the basis of this schema, Frampton singled out for criticism two tendencies in contemporary
architecture. The first is "the constant habit of treating every building as though it's a free standing
object, plunked down on the earth as though by parachute." The second is "the penchant for
either neo-expressionism or neo-minimalism, which are both reductive in their approach to the
design of corporeal space." The first of these tendencies has spawned the "endless panorama of
free-standing objects that litter the megalopolitan landscape . . . irrespective of their hypothetical
architectonic or aesthetic quality," while the second has led to "underarticulated formalistic
volumes that do not provide for the accommodation of the subject in a sufficiently responsive and
poetic manner."

In opposition to these two tendencies Frampton set the concepts of "land form" and "corporeal
space." "Land forms," Frampton explained, are "interventions conceived from the outset as a new
topography, thereby reprofiling the sense of ground through the superimpostition of insterstitial
residential form." This idea is neatly encapsulated in the German idea of teppichhäuse, which
Frampton explained to mean, "a woven residential fabric that is virtually inseparable from the
configuration of the ground." For Frampton, corporeal space accommodates the ergonomic and
emotional needs of the subject, and stems from a design process that elevates consideration of
human needs over formal expression.

As examples of "the potential to create environments that are more critically articulated,"
Frampton discussed Eileen Gray and Jean Bodovici's E-1027 house, and selected projects by
Roland Rainer. Frampton's discussion of E-1027, a 1929 modernist house nestled into a cliff on
the French Riviera, centered on the "tactile and corporeal interior that is capable of responding
both ergonomically and poetically to the constantly changing needs of the human subject."
Frampton detailed the multiple movement paths stemming from the main entry, the subtle
integration, but not compromise, of elegantly unfolding public and private sequences, the
blending of indoor and outdoor sequences, and the ability of the spaces to accommodate various
dwelling and entertaining functions. To outline Gray's design thinking, Frampton quoted from a
book on E-1027 published by the architects: "the thing constructed is more important than the
way it is constructed and the process is subordinate to the plan not the plan to the process. It is
not only a matter of constructing beautiful arrangements of lines but above all, dwellings for
people."
Frampton also highlighted the house's furnishings and other appurtenances. On the southern
elevation, sliding windows can be retracted into the wall, so that the subject can adjust the
boundary between interior and exterior at will. In bad weather conditions, "it suffices" explains
Gray, "to close the large southern windows, draw the curtains, and open the small northern
windows that overlook the garden of lemon trees and the old village to seek a new and different
horizon where the masses of greenery replace the expanses of blue and gray." Frampton showed
Gray's "non conformist chair," which, with only one arm-rest, allows a greater number of sitting
positions, as an example of how for Gray "this question of posture according to changing moods,
and feelings, and climate and so on is a huge issue." As an example of Gray's assiduous
attention to ergonomics, Frampton quoted again from the E-1027 book. "The [guest room] linen
cupboard below the window is placed at the height of the hands so that the bottom can be
reached effortlessly without bending over. It is hung from the wall, which allows the tile flooring
underneath to be easily cleaned. The stair has been built using smallest possible dimensions but
with large deep steps that are grooved to be comfortable. The stair-shaft is much larger than the
spiral stairs so that the volume seems light and airy around the spiral stair, which serves like a
step ladder for a series of cupboards that are ventilated, lit, and accessible from both inside and
outside [the stair.]"

"It is in my opinion," concluded Frampton, "a kind of poetry of equipment. It's an extremely small
house yet as you move around it there are constantly changing corporeal situations that respond
to the movement gesture of the body, almost to excess."

Frampton's discussion of Austrian architect Roland Rainer focused on his "overtly ecological
approach to the issues of habitat." Quoting extensively from Rainer's 1972 book Livable
Environments, Frampton outlined Rainer's belief that architecture should be integrated with
landscape, even subordinated to it, by building with local materials, and making buildings "so
unobtrusive that they, in effect, disappear." Frampton outlined Rainer's rejection of technology as
a means of addressing human needs, and his exhortation to subordinate economic concerns to
the goal of human welfare, conceived in psychological and biological terms. For Rainer, who
boldly advocated low-rise high density courtyard housing as "a revisionist alternative to what was
already the prevailing megalopolitan condition" of limitless urban sprawl, "the alternative of the
atrium house [in] various forms and aggregations embraced cultural and even political
consequences of the land form as a potential for cultivating a new landscape."

Showing several of Rainer's houses, including the architect's own, Frampton focused on the
interior dimensions of the houses, the integration of houses with the landscape through the use of
stepped exterior gardens and courtyards that blur the distinction between interior and exterior,
and provide an array of ways for the subject to integrate and experience enclosure and exposure.

The remainder of Frampton's discussion centered on Siedlung Puchenau, a two-stage settlement

on the Danube near Linz, begun in 1960 and continued for nearly twenty years thereafter. At
Puchenau, the settlements are divided into three bands that run parallel to the river. The buildings
closest to the river are shortest-typically one-story dwellings-and the bands increase in height as
one moves away from the water. The buildings furthest from the river, and therefore highest on
the riverbank, are tallest, shielding traffic noise from the settlement. The differently-sized buildings
allow for different types of dwelling arrangements in the settlement, permit sun ample sunlight to
enter all homes in all seasons, and achieve an elegant "layering of the fabric into the site."
Integrated with gardens, the stepped settlement descends gently to the river, hugging the
contours of the riverbank. The settlement is not so much on the topography as in it. Puchenau
therefore exemplifies an "articulated topography wherein the built fabric conceived as a land form
is subtly integrated into the ground, thereby incrementally creating a new landscape."
In conclusion, Frampton reiterated the two basic thrusts of his talk. "The point is obvious: this
question of how the body is accommodated in the living space is something to which we should
pay greater attention. Buildings should be anchored into the site, rendered topographically, and
not just as free standing objects." Regarding the architectural vocabulary with which this can be
achieved, Frampton concluded, "I think that the modernity that we have, the tradition of the new
that we have, is one that has already been established. What we need to do is cultivate it with a
greater kind of care, without repeating it in a sort of simplistic fashion."