Kenneth Frampton is the Recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Architecture Biennale

Kenneth Frampton, an English architect, historian, critic and educator, has been awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

In proposing this name Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara expressed the following motivation:

«Through his work Kenneth Frampton occupies a position of extraordinary intuition and intelligence, combined with a sense of unique integrity. It stands out as the voice of truth in promoting the key values of architecture and its role in society. His humanistic philosophy, in relation to architecture, is rooted in his writing and has constantly argued this humanistic component through all the various “movements” and tendencies of architecture, often misleading, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.»

The President of the Venice Biennale Paolo Baratta declared:

«There is no student of the faculties of architecture who has not had in his hands his History of modern architecture. The Golden Lion goes this year to a teacher, and in this sense also wants to be a recognition of the critical teaching of architecture. »

Kenneth Frampton (London, 1930) was trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He worked as a historical architect and architecture critic. He is currently Ware Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York. He has been teaching at the Royal College of Art in London, the ETH in Zurich, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, the EPFL in Lausanne and the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. He is the author of many essays on modern and contemporary architecture, and has been part of numerous international juries for architectural prizes and building commissions.