Kenneth Frampton was born in 1930 and trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. He has taught at a number of leading institutions in the field, including the Royal College of Art in London, the ETH in Zurich, the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, EPFL in Lausanne and the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio.

From 1972 to 2019 he served as Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University, New York. He is the author of numerous essays on modern and contemporary architecture, has served on many international juries for architectural awards and building commissions, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2018 he was awarded the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale. His publications include Studies in Tectonic Culturei (1992), Labour, Work and Architecture (2005), American Masterworks (2008), Kengo Kuma: Complete Works (2012) and A Genealogy of Modern Architecture (2013).