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INTRODUCTION
Louis Kahn (1901-1974) is an American architect who is considered
to be one of the great master builders of the Twentieth Century. Kahn
created buildings of monumental beauty with powerful universal
symbolism.
LOUIS KAHN
BIOGRAPHY
About Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn was born in 1901 in a country that is now part of Estonia.
His family was very poor and migrated to America in 1906. Despite
his familys poverty, Kahn received an excellent education and,
inspired by a high school course in architectural history, won a
scholarship to study architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
Louis Kahn began his career working on housing and urban planning,
but as his career progressed he also designed museums,
laboratories, schools, churches, synagogues and even a national
parliament. Despite his prolific designs, Kahns career as an architect
resulted in relatively few completed buildings. However the
structures that were built established him as one of the most
influential designers of his era.
CITY
Louis Kahn grew up, lived, learned and worked in the city of
Philadelphia. He played a pioneering role in thinking about urban
development. Beginning with housing projects, and then turning to
bigger urban schemes during the 1950s and 1960s, Kahn ideas
became more radical. His key proposals for the city of Philadelphia
included the reorganization of urban traffic making the inner city
pedestrian-friendly, and the bold project of a 180-meter high City Hall
Tower which was never built. A scale model of the City Hall Tower at
1:50 scale can be seen in the exhibition. Its spiraling double helix is
inspired by James Watson and Francis Crick's discovery of DNA in
1953.
SCIENCE
Through his many influences, Kahn brought together design, art,
science and engineering, to develop a truly unique architectural style.
Kahns influences included Buckminster Fuller who popularized the
geodesic dome and Josef Albers whose work with geometric shapes
sparked Kahns fascination with light and shadows. Kahns ideas
were also shaped by his colleague Anne Tyng, who pioneered the
use of space frame architecture, where interlocking geometric
patterns are used to form light-filled space.
LANDSCAPE
Landscape was important to Kahn, and he viewed the gardens and
grounds around his work as an extension of the buildings. He was
interested in how buildings could be formed to make the most of light
and natural elements. This can be seen in the dramatic Salk Institute
for Biological Studies (195965) which is a geometric concrete
structure with a channel running through the centre of an open
courtyard, connecting the building to the nearby Pacific Ocean.
HOUSE
All of the houses designed by Kahn and built during his lifetime were
in and around his home city of Philadelphia. Louis Kahn saw the
home as an institution, and believed that the house was a basic
element of a city. Kahn said the plan of a city is like the plan of a
house where every space has a function including social space, work
space, rest and leisure areas. Kahns houses show the influence of
the American Arts and Crafts Movement, favouring simple interiors
and furniture of wood.
ETERNAL PRESENT
Kahns travels to Italy, Greece, and Egypt shaped his architectural
thinking, as his travel drawings show. Kahn was capitvated by ancient
monuments and ruins, and wanted to create modern monuments for
a new age. Through this, Louis Kahn developed a new type of
modern architecture by challenging the trends of using technology
and material to make buildings lighter and taller. Instead, Kahns
buildings celebrated that mass and weight of buildings. He
composed structures that addressed the balance, scale, space, and
form, and by doing so, he found a new way of presenting
monumental, symbolic buildings.
COMMUNITY
Kahn wanted his buildings to be places for ppeople to meet, work,
and live together. This was best expressed through Kahns late and
largest projects in India and Bangladesh both city-like complexes.
Kahns design for the National Parliament House in the Bangladeshi
capital of Dhaka (1962-1983) and the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad (196274) were designed to enable people to meet, work
and connect with each other.
These projects bring together Kahns interest in landscape, geometry,
materials, light and connected space.
DESIGN DICTIONARY
More useful design definitions can be found online at:
http://designmuseum.org/discoverdesign/glossary
Albers, Josef (1888-1976)
Arts and Crafts
Movement
Bauhaus
Buckminster Fuller
(1895-1983)
Modern Architecture
Urban planning
FURTHER READING
Current exhibition information
http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2014/louis-kahn
Overview biography and summary of the career of Louis Kahn:
http://designmuseum.org/design/louis-kahn
My Architect: a sons journey, is a documentary film made by
Nathaniel Kahn (2003), son of Louis Kahn.
https://vimeo.com/67173077
EXHIBITION GUIDANCE
This is a traditional exhibition including delicate models and rare
prints. Many objects are in cases, but some items are on open
display. Care should be taken when moving around the exhibition and
no objects in this exhibition should not be touched. We would be
grateful if you could brief your students accordingly.
Depending on your group and your itinerary for the visit, we would
recommend that you set aside approximately 30 minutes to explore
this exhibition.
Filming and photography is strictly prohibited in this exhibition. This
is due to conservation requirements of the historic material on
display.
Please ensure that you read our school visit Terms and Conditions
document before making your visit.
We encourage the use of sketchbooks and pencils in the gallery.
To access free downloadable gallery activity worksheets for students,
please visit our online resource Discover Design
http://designmuseum.org/discoverdesign/downloads.html
Design Museum, Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD
Daily 10am 5.45pm
T 020 7940 8782
E learning@designmuseum.org