louis i kahn(niruti)

8/7/2019 LOUIS I KAHN(niruti)

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He was an American architect and teacherBorn February 20, 1901, on the Isle of Osel, Estonia

He was taken to the United States as a child.

He got a degree in architecture at the University ofPennsylvania in 1924

He spent the first 20 years of his practice mostly inassociation with other architects, working on a greatvariety of projects, many involving new housing.

He passed away on march 17, 1974.


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He defined space by means of masonry masses and alucid structure laid out in geometric, formal schemesand axial layouts with a strong processional characterof space and images.

He believed that the function of the building was its

intended use or the "human institution" the buildingwas to serve.

These "human institutions" stemmed from theinspiration to live which, according to Kahn, isthreefold; the inspiration to learn, the inspiration to

meet, and the inspiration for well-being.He constantly asked the question "What does thebuilding want to be? thus his creation were ananswering architectural form. Buildings were not inertconfigurations of form and space but living organic

entities.


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He believed in beginnings.

"I think of school as an environment of spaces where

is good to learn. Schools began with a man under a tree,who did not know he was a teacher, discussing hisrealization with a few who did not know they werestudents . . . the existence-will of school was there evenbefore the circumstances of a man under a tree. That iswhy is good for the mind to go back to the beginning,because the beginning of any established activity is itsmost wonderful moment."

to him function had to accommodate itself to the form,but only in so far as the form itself had been inventedfrom a profound understanding of the overall task in thefirst place.

Beauty was not within his immediate concerns.

True expression and appropriateness to use were hisprimary concerns.


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For Kahn it was natural light that brought architectureto life; the artificial light had an unvarying "dead"quality in contrast to the ever-changing daylight.

Light, for him, was not only an instrument of ourperception of things, but the very source of matter itself.

He was especially attracted to the cyclic nature of lightand attributed great psychological and metaphysicalsignificance to its daily and seasonal fluctuations.

Kahn saw architectural elements, such as the column,arch, dome, and vault, in their capacity of molding lightand shadow.

To him spaces were equally important.

He defined his work as the thoughtful making ofspaces and bore this out by making his interiorsgenerally more striking than his exteriors.

His buildings were divided into two main divisions The Served Spaces and The Servant Spaces.


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Location: New Heaven,Connecticut

Date: 1969 to 1974

Building Type: artmuseum with mixed use

retail

Construction System:concrete

Climate: temperate

Main featureExpressed frame and

infill.


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The building has a discreet, grey, monotone exteriorof steel and reflective glass

Its clearly read concrete frame confer a certainnoble, armored mien appropriate to its purpose.

Inside the building the visitor experiences the same

clarity and organization seen on the exterior.

Yale Center for British Art is based on a repetitive20-foot-square grid, was formally conceived as aseries of highly structured 'roomlike' spaces.

The whole ambiance of the building is rich,seductive, and well-scaled.

The exposed concrete structure with oak paneledinserts gives a warmer, more sedate feeling


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Location: Bryn Mawr,

Pennsylvania

Date: 1960 to 1965

Building Type: collegedormitories

Construction System:concrete frame, CMUinfill, slate cladding

Climate: temperate

Context: suburbancampus

Notes: Intersectingdiamond plans withservices at core androoms at periphery.


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The building sits at the end of a suburban campus of acollege for girls.

The dormitory is conceived as a large house forapproximately 150 girls.

The plan is structured by three halls defined by largehoods, which rise above the roof to bring in natural light.

The 'walls' of these halls contain the 'servant' spaces.

The individual rooms for the students make up theperiphery of each of the three squares.

Each central space is formed by four bath units directlyrelated to the served bedrooms. The rectangular areas

defined by the bath units serve as stairwells, balconies,and passageways. These areas are lit by skylights."

Connections are achieved at the corners.

Construction consists of reinforced concrete frame withcinder block walls covered with slate on the exterior and

plaster inside.


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Location: Chestnut Hill,Pennsylvania

Date: 1959 to 1961

Building Type: house

Construction System: woodframe, dark stucco, large

windows

Climate: temperate

Context: suburban


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Kahn built relatively few houses. In each there seemsto be a larger-scale building trying to escape from theconfines of the client's budget.

In the Esherick House, the inherent monumentality ofthe plan is diminished by the fact that the major livingspaces are surrounded by very thick walls.

In the double-height living room, the fireplace wall isliterally deep.

The opposite wall also has a fireplace used in thebathroom, but the wall is thicker containing a zone ofservant spaces, kitchen, bathrooms, closets which arenot part of the axial symmetry of the two major livingspaces.

The two window walls are also thick but these framewalls have niches between the casements.

The most intricate planning occurs on the first floorwhere the sliding doors between the gallery andbedroom, and then between bedroom and bathroom,

suggest a flow of space from void to room to altar.


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Location: Exeter, NewHampshire

Date: 1967 to 1972

Building Type: school library

Construction System:

reinforced concrete

Climate: temperate

Context: school campus

Notes: organized aroundpowerful central space.


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Elemental in its contemporary directness andbuilt also with the sense and durability of thegreat monuments of history is the Library atPhilips Exeter Academy.

In the spirit of the grand, classical tradition of

the focal organizing space, the reading room is acentral hall encircled by balconies containing thestacks and study alcoves.

It is a space diagonally overlooked throughgiant circular openings in the interior screen

walls that define the central area.


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In keeping with the campus tradition, the exteriorof the building is a repetition of brick piers, wider asthey approach the ground where the book loads aregreater, cut back at all four corners to subtlyarticulate the building's exterior square form.

The perimeter study carrels are illuminated fromwindows above the reader's eye level; smallerwindows at eye level afford views to the campus orconversely can be closed by a sliding wooden shutterfor privacy and concentration.


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Location: Fort Worth, texas

Date: 1967 to 1972

Building Type: art museum

Construction System:

reinforced concrete

Climate: temperate

Context: urban park setting

Notes: vaulted ceilings with

integrated daylighting


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The Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn isalso a disciplined, coherent, and visually

clear statement, but here the aestheticsderive from the more classically orientedsensibility of its architect.

It has an austere yet rich simplicity thatcomes from the repetition of a vaultlikeform, given a dull sheen from its lead-covered exterior, and a beautifullyarticulated concrete structural frame withinfill paneled walls of travertine.

Its interior form, bathed in a diffusednatural light that enters the space viacontinuous interior suspended screen andreflected downward off the curve of the

vault.


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Location: Philadelphia,Pennsylvania

Date: 1957 to 1961

Building Type: laboratories,offices

Construction System: precastconcrete with trusses, brick

Climate: temperate

Context: urban campus

Notes: University ofPennsylvania. separation ofservice and primary spaces.


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The Medical Research Building at the Universityof Pennsylvania is conceived in recognition of therealization that science laboratories are studios

There are three great stacks of studios andattach to them tall service towers which wouldinclude animal quarters, mains to carry water,gas and vacuum lines, as well as vertical ducts tobreathe

This design, an outcome of the consideration ofthe unique use of its spaces and how they areserved characterizes what it is for."


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Location: Ahmedabad,India

Date: 1963

Building Type: school ofgovernment

Construction System: brickmasonry and concrete

Climate: desert

Context: urban

Notes: Heavy layered wallsmodulate sun and capture

ventilating breezes.


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The organization of the complex, as well as itsarchitecture, reflects the conceptual organization oflearning which is focused on three inevitablecomponents: the school, the students, and the teachers.

The architect chooses and arranges to express inspaces environment and in relationships man'sinstitutions.


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Location: La Jolla, California

Date: 1959 to 1966

Building Type: research laboratories and offices

Construction System: reinforced concrete

Climate: mild

Context: seaside

Notes: stark but elegantly detailed, abstracted modernshapes combined with a formal symmetry

In the laboratories the vertical ducts of the RichardsBuilding have been turned on their sides, housed in thehollows of spanning box girders and vented from huge

hoods at the flanks of the building.The pre-cast units of structure have thus continued tobecome larger as the crane can lift them.

In this building the two spaces- the served space andthe servant space form out to be integrated as a single

unit, first time to appear in Kahns design

louis i kahn(niruti)

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