Louis I. Kahn

Louis Isadore Kahn was one of the foremost architects of the second half of the 20 century. He went to the United States in 1905, and having mastered the Beaux-Arts-inspired curriculum of Dean Paul Cret, he graduated with honour from the University of Pennsylvania in 1924. In the 1920s and early 30s, he worked first as a draughtsman and later as head designer in a succession of Philadelphia-based firms.

Most notably during this period, Kahn was Chief of Design for the Sesquicentennial Exhibition (1925-6) in his capacity as senior assistant in the Philadelphia City Architect’s office. During the Depression, he was particularly active in the design of public assisted housing. From 1935 Kahn was in private practice until his death in 1974. He was associated with George Howe in 1941, with Howe and Oscar Stonorov in 1942, and with Stonorov alone 1943-8. He was Design Critic and Professor of Architecture at Yale University from 1947 to 1957, when he accepted a similar appointment at his alma mater in Philadelphia.

Kahn received the AIA Gold Medal (1971) and the RIBA Gold Medal (1972) and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1971). In his teaching and practice, Kahn profoundly influenced a generation of famous architects. He brought to both endeavours a talmudic questioning of the first principles of architectural design. This fundamental enquiry led him to dwell on the relationship between the underlying Form of a project and its Design.

Kahn’s architecture is notable for its simple, platonic forms and compositions. Through the use of brick and poured-in-place concrete masonry, he developed a contemporary architecture of great power and monumentality. At the same time, his buildings invariably display a keen sensitivity to the nuances of site conditions through the artful manipulation of natural light. While rooted in the International Style Modernism of his age, Kahn mined both the Beaux-Arts education of his youth and a deeply felt aesthetic impulse to develop a personal architectural vocabulary of forms that has been a point of departure for many subsequent architects.

Projects such as the Salk Institute and the Kimbell Art Museum, masterpieces of the reconciliation of Form and Order through inspired construction, are among the most studied works of architecture of the last half-century. Noted for his cryptic pronouncements and aphoristic remarks, Kahn often spoke of his desire to discover “what a material wants to be”. The diligence and depth of his search set him apart from his colleagues and ensures Kahn’s lasting recognition as one of the masters of c20 architecture.

List of Kahn’s major works

  • Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1951-3.
  • Richards Medical Research Building, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1957-64. Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, 1959-65.
  • New Capital of Bangladesh, Dacca, 1962-74.
  • Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1966-72.
  • Library and Dining Hall, Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, 1967-72.
  • Center for British Art and Studies, Yale University, New Haven, 1969-74.

Bibliography

  • Vincent Scully Jr, Louis I. Kahn, New York, 1962.
  • Romaldo Giurgola and Jaimini Mehta, Louis I. Kahn, Boulder, Colorado, 1975. Alexandra Tyng, Beginnings: Louis I. Kahn’s Philosophy of Architecture, New York, 1984.
  • Heinz Ronner and Sharad Maven (eds.) Louis I. Kahn: Complete Work 1935.1974, Basel, 1987.

20th Century Famous Architects

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