Louis I. Kahn An American Modernist Jialu Zhang Fall 2013 Architecture theories and concepts Project Introduction Architect Impact • Analysis of architect Louis I. Kahn • Introduce Louis Kahn with a brief overview and his design philosophy, language and organizing principles. • Introduce his several works along with his design ideas • Focus on one of his most respected works: Kimbell Art Museum • Born in 1901 in Island of Osel, Estonia and immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1905 • Graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1924 • Founded the Architectural Research Group with Dominique Berninger in 1932 • Died in 1974 in New York • Well-known for combining Modernism with ancient monuments • Set against the pasche of late modern ism and formalist decadence but applied their underlying principles to meet func- onal requirements in modernism • His buildings’ highly experimental process became a standard procedure for others Philosophy Organizing Principle Design Language Background • Thoughul consideraon of materials such as using posensioned concrete and mathmacal,geometrical forms • Sophiscated technologies and mathma- cal, geometrical forms • Funconality • Bold Circles, Colossal cylinder of brick and concrete was used for either interior or facade • Emphasize on the character of nature light • Divide spaces into “master” and “servant” areas • Mathemacal and geometrical forms for detailing • Full of inversions: masses to weightlessness, light to shadows, solids to voids. • Axial composion • Less simplicity, more sophiscated geometry and materiality • “Light, Silence and Shadow”: Light-- the giver of presence which casts shadow, and Silence--the desire and need, make the inspiraon. • Form and space should arise from “a full consideraon of needs and resources available.” (Leslie, P 3) • “Order” refers to form-making in order and creave force • “The nature of space reflects what it wants to be” Porfolio The Salk Institute La Jolla, California, 1959–1965 Yale University Art Gallery New Haven, Connecticut, 1951–1953 Richards Medical Research Labs Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1957–1965 The Medical Towers was Kahn’s first build- ing of major importance. It is a typical work that reflects his organizing principle that di- vide space to“master” and “servant” areas It is a “culminaon” of modern architec- ture because of its funonalism, “how it responds to needs, honesty in use of mate- rials”(Lobell, P 72). He also used red brick which help him find the material’s nature. The lab spaces in the Salk Instute are large and flexible. This design is Kahn’s “fist complete vision of a new architec- ture, which responds to the whole human being” (Lobell, 76). He wrapped glass in concrete and between thes glass boxes, he built a coutyard, “a place of sllness, of Silence”. At first Yale’s Gallery consisted of a half- built gothic structure. Kahn made a new scheme based on old system’s limitaons. He arranged the bays in rectangular grid, “providing a narrow footprint and a dirc- onal grain that emphasized the circula- on connecng the new and old build- ings”(Leslie, P 55).