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bajado el 26 de enero de 2015

Joseph A. Burton

Las diferencias filosficas en los Pensamientos

de Louis I. Kahn y Martin Heidegger

1 Heinrich Klotz y Christian Norberg-Schulz han sealado similitudes entre el

pensamiento del maestro arquitecto americano, Louis I. Kahn y el filsofo alemn
"existencialista", Martin Heidegger1). Norberg-Schulz ha hecho ms para establecer
esta conexin filosfica entre el arquitecto y el filsofo.
En "El Mensaje de Louis Kahn", Norberg-Schulz ve la filosofa de Kahn como
incompleta, una teora arquitectura en progess 2). l declara:
2.. . cuando tomamos una mirada cercana a los escritos de Kahn, el contorno de una
"teora" de la arquitectura emerge. Ciertamente, no es elaborado en detalle, pero la
estructura bsica es coherente. Para que la teora de Kahn generalmente til, tiene
que ser interpretado y desarrollado. Ya que tiene una base filosfica, esta obra no
puede ser confinada dentro de los lmites de la teora de la arquitectura como tal. En la
filosofa de la ayuda ms til se encuentra en los escritos de Martin Heidegger, cuyas
ideas en ciertos aspectos muestran una notable semejanza con los de Kahn3)
La crtica de Heidegger 3Following de la filosofa occidental post-socrtico, evaluacin
Norberg-Schulz 'que la teora de Kahn es insuficiente e ingenuo se basa en lo que l
ve como el platonismo de Kahn, en esencia precede a la existencia. La filosofa de
Platn se entiende que es dualista en su divisin entre esencia como realidad y
existencia como ilusin, mientras que la ontologa de Heidegger estructuralmente
unificada 'se basa en la existencia esencia anterior. l escribe:
La filosofa de 4Kahn evidentemente tiene orgenes platnicos. As habla de forma en
el sentido platnico de idea, y l considera arte resultado de la voluntad de "expresar".
Incluso se utiliza la palabra "sombra" en relacin con las cosas concretas del mundo,
como lo hizo Platn en su Alegora de la Caverna. Kahn tambin subordina los
existentia al Essentia, y por lo tanto cree en la tradicin de metaphysics.4 Occidental)

Pensamiento "defectuosa" de 5Although Kahn parece estar basada en el platonismo,

Norberg-Schulz argumenta que en realidad no es dualista. l explica que a pesar de la
calidad de aficionado de Kahn como filsofo, el arquitecto logra en su arquitectura
integridad estructural mediante la unin de la existencia y la esencia de la tensin
dinmica.
"Ser un arquitecto en ejercicio, sin embargo, Kahn no trat de involucrarse en una
bsqueda filosfica de formas perfectas, elevndolos de las imperfecciones del mundo
todos los das. Ms bien quera descubrir o revelar el Essentia directamente. As que
realmente volvi a la "comienzo". Adems l defini el Essentia en trminos de
inspiraciones humanos y las instituciones fin poseedoras. en lugar de separar el
Essentia del existentia l en vez concebido el mundo como un todo integrado. el
Essentia no pertenecen a un reino propio, pero son las estructuras bsicas de la nica
y mundial. Sus ilustraciones de la nocin de "principio" demostrar claramente que ". 5)
Lo que impresiona Norberg-Schulz sobre la obra de Kahn es la capacidad del
arquitecto para que los valores humanos atemporal concreta en las organizaciones
espaciales de sus diseos temporales. Norberg-Schulz seala adems a la continua
renovacin programtica de Kahn de "las instituciones del hombre" como ejemplo de
una arquitectura "basada en las formas generales del hombre del ser-en-el-mundo". 6)
De acuerdo con Norberg-Schulz, Kahn fue contratado en una bsqueda de la
estructura del ser paralela a Heidegger:
6.. . As Kahn toma el ser-en-el-mundo total, como su punto de partida, y define
nuestra tarea humana como el descubrimiento de su estructura. De esta manera l en
verdad se acerca a la filosofa de Heidegger, quien tambin estaba profundamente
preocupado con "inicios". 7)
7 En un segundo ensayo, "Kahn, Heidegger y el lenguaje de la arquitectura", NorbergSchulz propuso llevar a cumplimiento la teora de "inmaduro" de Kahn con el
pensamiento de Martin Heidegger.8) la filosofa de Heidegger proporciona los medios
adecuados para promover la "incompleta "exgesis de la obra de Kahn, as como para
dar a las palabras del arquitecto profundidad sistemtica y una mayor sancin
filosfica. En este ensayo, Norberg-Schulz se centra la atencin en diversos usos de
Kahn del verbo "para expresar". Afirma que la teora de la "expresin" de Kahn no es
acerca de la auto-expresin. En teora de la expresin de Kahn Norberg-Schulz
reconoce que un "lenguaje de la arquitectura" rudimentario est siendo construido por
el arquitecto. l, por lo tanto, examina los escritos de Heidegger en relacin con el
"lenguaje", "poesa", "arte" y "vivienda" con el fin de completar el intento frustrado de
Kahn para desarrollar un "lenguaje de la arquitectura".
Norberg-Schulz explica que el lenguaje como la poesa crea concreto "espacio
existencial". l informa cmo Heidegger define "espacio existencial" como "el
cudruple" 0.9) "cuatro veces" de Heidegger, un anlisis de mundo: "la tierra, el cielo,
los mortales y divinidades", posee una tensin dinmica unificada entre los conceptos
estructurales y descriptions.10 hormign ) Mediante la creacin de hormign "espacio
existencial", el lenguaje como la poesa, el arte y la arquitectura permitir a la
humanidad "habitar" 0,11) "para vivir" es existir en "el carcter bsico del ser": en "el

cudruple", en "existencial espacio ". Por lo tanto, Norberg-Schulz recuerda que para
"lenguaje" Heidegger es "la casa del ser" 0,12)
Aunque Norberg-Schulz da crdito Kahn para iniciar la bsqueda de un lenguaje
arquitectnico, en ltima instancia, una bsqueda de "espacio existencial", dice que el
arquitecto nunca alcanz una estructura existencial completa del mundo y en el
espacio:
8Whereas Heidegger da una atencin considerable a la estructura del mundo, Kahn
apenas se refiere a este problema bsico. Indirectamente, sin embargo, entendemos
que considera el mundo como tener una estructura esencial ("una rosa quiere ser una
rosa"). Su nocin del espacio es similar concreto. Viene enunciados en la declaracin
de que "un espacio que sabe lo que quiere ser una sala de" 0,13)
9Para entender la diferencia en el pensamiento de Kahn de Heidegger, es necesario
mirar ms de cerca a la visin del mundo del arquitecto y su influencia sobre su teora
esttica expresionista.
Cosmovisin de Kahn estaba fundada sobre una intuicin de un terreno trascendente y
omnipresente dentro y detrs de toda la realidad fsica - un Alma del Mundo que l
llam psique. Psique es una unidad que consiste en aspectos antitticos pensamiento y el sentimiento. Esta fuente inefable que subyace a toda la creacin,
explic, posee una existencia a priori ser o ms claramente articulada, un eterno
dispuesto a ser. l dijo:
10 Creo que la psique como una especie de prevalencia-ni una sola alma en cada uno
de nosotros, sino ms bien una prevalencia de la que cada uno de nosotros siempre
pide prestado una parte. . . y siento que esta psique est hecho de aura
inconmensurable, y que la naturaleza fsica es de lo que se presta a la medicin. Creo
que la psique prevalece sobre toda la universe.14)
La psique es expresada por el sentimiento y tambin pensado y creo que siempre ser
inmensurable. Tengo la sensacin de que la existencia psquica llamadas en la
naturaleza para hacer lo que [psique] quiere be.15).
11El una existencia a priori ser dentro de la psique, Kahn explic, es el principio de
"forma... Un mundo dentro de otro mundo" 16) La forma es una predisposicin
psquica particular sea. Se compone de elementos abstractos ideales e inseparables
que invoquen un carcter, "qu cosa quiere ser" 17). Ser ms all de la existencia
fsica y mensurable, esta entidad psquica nunca se realiza por completo en trminos
concretos. Por lo tanto, la forma tiene un potencial infinito para la expresin. Segn
Kahn, la forma manifiesta a travs de agencias inconscientes y conscientes llamados
umbrales, instrumentos y otras singularidades 18 veces). Se revela ms
dramticamente en la naturaleza no-consciente a travs de la fuente fenomenal de la
luz, el sol:

12El sol es el umbral en el que surgen los impulsos de expresar,

es la fuente de energa y de todos los presentes. 19).

13From el sol, la naturaleza de las apariencias toma su ser fsico. El alma humana
participa de forma, dijo, a travs de su reparto universal en la psique mundo
omnipresente. Por medio de la personalidad humana individual, la forma se dio cuenta
conscientemente como arte.
Descenso de Psique de forma no temporal en el tiempo y el espacio es una
cosmovisin completa que une el espritu a la materia. Kahn llam a su vista order20
mundo). El orden es todo incluido y evidente por s mismo. Con reminiscencias del
concepto griego de kosmos, orden da significado y sentido a la existencia. Esto es
porque el orden se basa en la naturaleza arbitraria no de forma - eterna voluntad
existencia de la psique. En dos diagramas delineados por Kahn para una publicacin
de 1973, present orden jerrquico siguiente psique y la forma.

figura 1

la figura 2

14En la figura 1, que denota los aspectos esenciales y existenciales de la orden como:
"orden psquico" y "orden fsico" 21). Kahn orden, la manifestacin del mundo
significativo representado, en el imaginario potico de "silencio a la luz, la luz al
silencio". Solicitar que se manifiesta como la luz es una enantiodrama perpetuo de
polaridades siempre la vuelta en sus opuestos.
Concepto de Kahn de forma - su carcter universal y atemporal a tierra en la psique era un componente esencial a travs del cual se pretende imbuir a su arquitectura con
sentido y valor. En consecuencia, fund su arte sobre la forma y sus manifestaciones
en orden.

Su teora esttica se basa en la suposicin de que una lengua que tienen en comn
puede indicar significado a travs de un sistema de significantes compartidos.

El medio para hacer que el aspecto no sensible de forma sensible, es el smbolo, la

metfora visual apto.

15 "Veo smbolo por ser multifactico. Es como mirarse en un espejo en el que todo el
mundo mira por igual porque la distincin entre uno y otro es minsculo.
Por lo tanto, el arquitecto debe practicar su disciplina como un poeta y la bsqueda de
smbolos visuales apropiadas.

l dijo:
16 Cuando dices una cosa es potico, usted le est dando los ms altos elogios que
puede dar porque expresa lo que est tratando de eliminar la palabra. Y as, cuando
usted est diciendo que una cosa tiene una cualidad potica que realmente ests
diciendo que tiene una cualidad trascendente. La poesa es el aura de la religin de
bao durante las palabras de man.22)

17 En la mente de Kahn, el arte de la arquitectura es un lenguaje potico. Es no

verbal, que consiste en sistemas de cifrado fsicos destinados a ser ledos.
Arquitectura "habla" a travs de imgenes mudas, pero evocadoras, corporales
dirigidas a la vista. Para traducir "orden fsico" y "orden psquico" en el lenguaje de la
arquitectura, Kahn aplica dialcticamente dos medios de produccin potica. Su
arquitectura es a la vez un mimtico y un arte no-mimtica. En su obra maestra, utiliz
el proceso potico de mimesis para hacer la voluntad existente, las formas de "orden
fsico" natural inteligible Por ejemplo, para expresar la naturaleza de los materiales -.
"lo que quiere ser" - que utiliz slo los mtodos constructivos que imitaban fielmente
carcter manifiesto en particular de un material . Kahn es famoso por su aplicacin de
la mmesis de la naturaleza a la compresin de la mampostera de ladrillo:

18Si usted habla con un ladrillo y lo pide lo que le gusta que le dice que le gusta un
arco. Y dices a ella, mira arcos son caros y siempre se puede utilizar un dintel de
hormign para tomar el lugar de un arco. Y el ladrillo dice, s que es caro y me temo
que, probablemente, no se puede construir en estos das, pero si usted me pregunta lo
que me gusta, sigue siendo un arco 23).
19El gusto mimtica de Kahn, el existencialista, est lgicamente se opuso al gusto no
mimtica de Kahn, el esencialista. Para que el "orden psquico" de forma sensible,
Kahn propuso el uso de la no-mimtica, imgenes simblicas.
Debido a la necesidad fsica, por lo tanto, el arquitecto debe integrar la "alegora" de
"orden psquico" dentro de los lmites tangibles de "orden fsico", estructura y funcin.
El arquitecto debe lograr dos significados con una imagen. Debe ser multivalente - una
expresin mimtica y no mimtico simultnea.
Con el fin de avanzar en sus extremos, simblicos "alegricos", Kahn conscientemente
inscrito imgenes pictogrfica-como primordiales dentro de su obra. La clave para
descifrar este "Rosetta Stone" es el uso de Kahn de un pictograma triangular antiguo,
D, lo que significa la pirmide egipcia. Desde la dcada de 1950 en, Kahn emple 2 y
3 variaciones dimensionales de la pirmide en su trabajo como eterno, sin embargo,
sigue siendo viable smbolo, moderno de la luz fsica y espiritual.
20 Aunque no asigna ningn significado simblico a ella, Vincent Scully fue el primero
en sealar la importancia de la imagen piramidal utilizado en toda la obra madura de
Kahn. Por ejemplo, las estructuras triangulares se presentan primero, claridad e
insistencia, en el techo de la Galera de Arte de Yale adicin. El diseo del techo de
Yale Art Gallery adicin se inspir en un marco de espacio, aunque acta

estructuralmente como una serie de vigas de hormign adornadas por un relleno de

tetraedros de hormign. El precedente tecnolgico para esta imagen estructural
avanzado est vinculada a Buckminister Fuller y el trabajo del miembro de la oficina de
Anne G. Tyng 24). Razonamiento no mimtica de Kahn para el uso de la pirmide
esttica se justifica por su significado alegrico arcaico. Un libro de un egiptlogo
prominente en su biblioteca privada, donde Kahn descubri este jeroglfico
arquitectnico, explic el antiguo significado del smbolo de la pirmide. En las
pirmides de Egipto, I.E.S. Edwards escribe:
21 Pero, qu la benben (la primitiva fetiche piedra de forma piramidal) y su derivado
de arquitectura, la verdadera pirmide, representan? Slo una respuesta sugiere en s:
los rayos del sol brillando sobre la tierra. Un espectculo notable a veces puede ser
visto en la tarde de un da nublado de invierno en Giza. Al estar de pie en el camino de
Saqqara y mirando hacia el oeste a la meseta de la pirmide, es posible ver los rayos
del sol golpeando hacia abajo a travs de una brecha en las nubes o menos al mismo
ngulo que la pendiente de la Gran Pirmide. La impresin causada en la mente por la
sensacin es que el prototipo inmaterial y la rplica de material son aqu oscilaron lado
a lado 25).

la figura 5

22 Edwards ms detallado que los benben simbolizaban la manifestacin material del

dios sol en el mito de la creacin egipcia. Tambin dijo que la forma triangular creado
una rampa celeste en la que el alma de los muertos Pharoh hara su camino hacia el
cielo. Este antiguo smbolo arquitectnico de la luz y sus dos dimensiones jeroglfico
expresa perfectamente la visin del mundo personal de Kahn. Kahn utiliza la forma
piramidal y sus dos dimensiones de cifrado, el tringulo, en su "silencio a la luz"
diagramas, alrededor de 1969, para expresar en ideograma arquitectnica su sentido
esencialista de "orden".

23 Las cualidades formales estticos del tringulo, tetraedro y pirmide tambin

encarnan la concepcin cientfica del arquitecto que la invariable absoluta en un
universo relativo es la medida de la luz. Comprensin de Kahn de la fsica
contempornea se basa en la de Albert Einstein. Esther Kahn ha relatado que en Kahn
a finales de 1930 viaj a Princeton a tomar el t con el gran cientfico 26). Kahn
aparentemente estuvo de acuerdo con la intuicin de Einstein, "que Dios no juega a
los dados", una sugerencia que subyace a la relatividad, hay absolutos eternos, como

el propio concepto de forma de Kahn. El arquitecto clebre visin de la primaca de la

luz de Einstein en un mundo relativo a la declaracin, "E = MC2 es un hermoso
poema." 27) Formado en los mtodos de dibujo de una educacin americana Beaux
Arts, Kahn tendra tambin reconoci la pirmide 3D formar como una especie de
perspectiva cnica, la pirmide de la visin. Del mismo modo, el tringulo 2D recuerda
las ambiguas, espacios condensados de arte impresionista del poste en el que
planitud aludi a lo intemporal y lo primitivo. Kahn utiliz estos modos de expresin
visual en sus pinturas y bocetos de viaje creando, mltiples vistas simultneas del
mundo fenomnico. Tambin aplic estos dispositivos pictricas, espacio en
perspectiva y la llanura, para crear alegoras arquitectnicos que suscitan cosmos
relativos de Einstein como premisa la luz como un absoluto. En su obra maestra se
presenta repetidamente el cubo visto en perspectiva en su diagonal que forma una
figura piramidal en la retina. (Por ejemplo Exeter Biblioteca de Kahn en Exeter NH.) l
yuxtapone al mismo tiempo esta imagen en perspectiva con contornos triangulares
visto plana en la elevacin. Estas imgenes triangular y piramidal enigmtica crea a
travs de un sutil paralelismo alegora a la fsica de Einstein. De acuerdo con la
relatividad del propio marco de referencia, los fenmenos de la complementariedad de
la luz - tanto de partculas como el material existente en el espacio / tiempo y la
energa pura, siendo infinito, al viajar en su propia medida - se simbolizan
paradjicamente con perspectivas piramidales concurrentes y figuras triangulares
planas en elevaciones.

Uso simblico 24 de Kahn de la imagen de una tumba de una cultura agraria primitiva
descansa en parte de su contenido metafsico asociada en la mitologa egipcia con la
resurreccin diaria del sol. En este contexto mortuorio, cuando el cubo es vista en
perspectiva piramidal, muestra el "cartesiano", mundo de los fenmenos de los ejes x,
y, z como una tumba 28). Ocho cubos facetas lados de Kahn son realmente
octgonos. Un volumen octogonal, como la pirmide, es un smbolo arquitectnico en
el tiempo asociado con la resurreccin. De esta manera, la arquitectura parlante de
Kahn, demuestra que la energa como "pas la luz" no es destruido en el movimiento
eterno de "El silencio de la Luz, Luz al silencio". El jeroglfico arquitectnico de la
pirmide, que literalmente significa "el castillo de la eternidad", encarna la creencia de
Kahn en la naturaleza creativa e inmortal del alma humana individual arraigado en la
psique. El propsito de la humanidad es manifestar esta quinta esencia invisible en el
mundo visible conscientemente. Resumi esta filosofa en su teora expresionista:

25 Es mi creencia de que vivimos expresar. Toda la motivacin de la presencia es la

de expresar. Y lo que la naturaleza nos da es el instrumento de expresin que todos
conocemos como a nosotros mismos, que es como dar el instrumento sobre el que la
cancin del alma puede ser played.29)
La sensacin de bienestar fsico viene del deseo de vivir para siempre: para expresar
30).
26 Con el uso de Kahn de la imaginera triangular para significar la luz, se puede
desarrollar an ms el A, B, C de su lenguaje arquitectnico e inferir el significado de

sus diversos usos del crculo y el cuadrado. El crculo parece ser cero a la izquierda de
Kahn para psique, Silencio y Volumen "0". Siguiendo las normas arquitectnicas
primitivas, al igual que con su uso de la pirmide, el crculo y la imaginera arcuated
relacionada en su obra recuerda la carpa celeste tradicional asociado con la divinidad
y la autoridad divina. El cuadrado y el cubo presenta presuncin de Kahn de la materia
que se "pasaron la luz". La plaza, por la costumbre consagrada por el tiempo, significa
el elemento de la tierra y el mundo material con sus 4 puntos cardinales. El cubo es
una imagen alqumica de la tierra perfeccionado, as como incorporando las
dimensiones cartesianas de medicin en el mundo fenomnico. Leer poesa
arquitectnica de Kahn, su visin del orden se concreta. El mundo material de los
manifiestos de luz pasaron adentro hacia afuera de un santuario interior de la psique,
el silencio y la forma. Present este "mundo dentro del mundo" en su trabajo
componiendo estructuras dentro de las estructuras. En la arquitectura parlante de
Kahn, la humanidad, como la psique, tambin est consagrado arquitectnicamente
como un santuario interior de la santa revelacin de la luz "interior" en el tiempo y el
espacio. Las especies autoconscientes existentes en el umbral entre "El silencio y la
luz" es a la vez el microcosmos y microtheos, un vehculo libre y creativo de la psique
mundo.

27 Para Kahn, la arquitectura, los pedidos no slo el espacio fsico, pero tambin
experiencia metafsica rdenes de la humanidad del mundo. Mediante poticos, el
arquitecto hace lo conceptual sensible y lo inteligible fsica. Cuando una obra expresa
la existencia humana de esta manera, se rene la humanidad a menudo alienados
naturalezas gemelas - psique y soma - en la totalidad. Arquitectura hace a uno ms a
gusto en el mundo, ofreciendo tanto santuario espiritual y fsica. Cumple una funcin
sagrada de alienacin DE, que conjunta a los contrarios. Kahn calific de "bienestar"
de la experiencia de polaridades amalgamados que el verdadero diseo precipitados.
l dijo:

28 Me siento fusin de los sentidos 31).

29 la obra maestra de Kahn es paralelo cudruple de Heidegger - la unin del cielo, la

tierra, mortales e inmortales. En la arquitectura de Kahn de "bienestar", la humanidad
"mora" en la expresin de la psique, personificada en la declaracin de Kahn: "el
deseo de vivir para siempre de expresar." Debido a Norberg-Schulz absorcin en la
filosofa de Heidegger, que no slo pasa por alto "esencialismo" de Kahn, pero est
cegado por este prejuicio filosfico en su lectura de la "teora expresionista" de Kahn.
Por lo tanto, ignora verdadero logro potico del arquitecto de un lenguaje
arquitectnico autntico que presenta tanto el espacio existencialista y
trascendentalista.

30 La diferencia crucial entre las dos visiones del mundo de Kahn y Heidegger - no
importa sus preocupaciones con respecto a los paralelos: el, el mundo de los
fenmenos irracionales, la libertad individual, y la superacin de la alienacin a travs
de una fusin dinmica de la subjetividad y la objetividad (la alteridad) - existencialista
de Heidegger posicin se basa en un vaco nihilista, un abismo de "sinsentido",
mientras cosmos basado msticas y esencialistas de Kahn tiene sus races en un alma
del mundo que l llam "psique" 32).
Joseph A. Burton

Philosophical Differences in the Thoughts

of Louis I. Kahn and Martin Heidegger

1 Heinrich Klotz and Christian Norberg-Schulz have noted similarities between the
thoughts of the American master architect, Louis I. Kahn and the German
"Existentialist" philosopher, Martin Heidegger1). Norberg-Schulz has done the most to
establish this philosophical connection between the architect and the philosopher.
In "The Message of Louis Kahn", Norberg-Schulz viewed Kahns philosophy as
incomplete, an architecture theory in progess 2). He states:
2. . . when we take a close look at the writings of Kahn, the outline of a "theory" of
architecture emerges. It is certainly not worked out in detail, but the basic structure is
coherent. To make Kahns theory generally useful, it needs to be interpreted and
developed. As it has a philosophical basis, this work cannot be confined within the
limits of architectural theory as such. In philosophy the most useful aid is found in the
writings of Martin Heidegger, whose ideas in certain respects show a striking
resemblance to those of Kahn3)
3Following Heideggers critique of Post-Socratic Western philosophy, Norberg-Schulz
appraisal that Kahns theory is insufficient and naive is based in what he sees as
Kahns Platonism, where essence precedes existence. Platos philosophy is
understood to be dualistic in its division between essence as reality and existence as
illusion, whereas Heideggers structurally unified ontology is based upon existence
preceding essence. He writes:
4Kahns philosophy evidently has Platonic origins. Thus he talks about form in the
Platonic sense of idea, and he considers art a result of the will to "express." He even
uses the word "shadow" in connection with the concrete things of the world, as did
Plato in his Allegory of the Cave. Kahn also subordinates the existentia to the essentia,
and thus thinks within the tradition of Western metaphysics.4)

5Although Kahns "faulty" thought seems based upon Platonism, Norberg-Schulz

argues that it is not really dualistic. He explains that despite Kahns amateur status as a

philosopher, the architect achieves in his architecture structural wholeness by uniting

existence and essence in dynamic tension.
"Being a practicing architect, however, Kahn did not seek to become involved in a
philosophical pursuit of perfect forms, elevating them from the imperfections of the
everyday world. Rather he wanted to discover or reveal the essentia directly. Thus he
really returned to the "beginning." Moreover he defined the essentia in terms of human
inspirations and institutions possessing order. Rather than separating the essentia from
the existentia he instead conceived the world as an integrated whole. The essentia do
not belong to a realm of their own, but are the basic structures of the one and only
world. His illustrations of the notion of "beginning" clearly prove that."5)
What impresses Norberg-Schulz about Kahns work is the architects ability to make
timeless human values concrete in the spatial organizations of his temporal designs.
Norberg-Schulz further points to Kahns continued programatic renewal of "the
institutions of man" as exemplifying an architecture "founded on the general forms of
mans Being-in-the-world."6) According to Norberg-Schulz, Kahn was engaged in a
search for the structure of Being parallel to Heidegger:
6. . . Kahn thus takes the total Being-in-the-world as his point of departure, and defines
our human task as the uncovering of its structure. Thereby he indeed comes close to
the philosophy of Heidegger, who was also deeply concerned with "beginnings." 7)
7 In a second essay, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", NorbergSchulz proposed to bring to fulfillment Kahns "immature" theory with the thought of
Martin Heidegger.8) Heideggers philosophy provides the appropriate means to further
the "incomplete" exegesis of Kahns oeuvre as well as to give to the architects words
systematic depth and greater philosophical sanction. In this essay, Norberg-Schulz
focuses attention on Kahns various uses of the verb "to express". He claims that
Kahns theory of "expression" is not about self-expression. In Kahns theory of
expression Norberg-Schulz recognizes that a rudimentary "language of architecture" is
being constructed by the architect. He, thus, examines Heideggers writings concerning
"language", "poetry", "art" and "dwelling" in order to complete Kahns frustrated attempt
to develop a "language of architecture".
Norberg-Schulz explains that language as poetry creates concrete "existential space".
He reports how Heidegger defined "existential space" as "the fourfold".9) Heideggers
"fourfold", an analysis of world: "earth, sky, mortals and divinities", possesses a unified
dynamic tension between structural concepts and concrete descriptions.10) By creating
concrete "existential space", language as poetry, art and architecture allow humankind
"to dwell".11) "To dwell" is to exist in "the basic character of Being": in "the fourfold", in
"existential space". Therefore, Norberg-Schulz reminds that for Heidegger "language"
is "the house of Being".12)
Although Norberg-Schulz gives Kahn credit for initiating the search for an architectural
language, ultimately a quest for "existential space", he says that the architect never
achieved a complete existential structure of world and space:
8Whereas Heidegger gives considerable attention to the structure of the world, Kahn
hardly refers to this basic problem. Indirectly, however, we understand that he

considers the world as having an essential structure (" a rose wants to be a rose"). His
notion of space is similarly concrete. It comes forth in the statement that "a space
which knows what it wants to be is a room".13)
9To understand the difference in Kahns thought from Heidegger, it is necessary to look
more closely at the architects world view and its influence upon his expressionist
aesthetic theory.
Kahns weltanschauung was founded upon an intuition of a transcendent and
omnipresent ground within and behind all physical reality -- a World Soul that he called
psyche. Psyche is a unity consisting of antithetical aspects -- thought and feeling. This
ineffable source underlying all creation, he explained, possesses an a priori existence
will or more clearly articulated, an eternal willing to be. He said:
10 I think of psyche as being a kind of prevalencenot a single soul in each of usbut
rather a prevalence from which each one of us always borrows a part . . . and I feel that
this psyche is made of immeasurable aura, and that physical nature is made of that
which lends itself to measurement. I think that psyche prevails over the entire
universe.14)
The psyche is expressed by feeling and also thought and I believe will always be
unmeasurable. I sense that the psychic existence will calls on nature to make what it
[psyche] wants to be.15).
11The a priori existence will within psyche, Kahn explained, is the beginning of "form . .
. a world within a world"16) Form is a particular psychic predisposition to be. It consists
of ideal and inseparable abstract elements which invoke a nature, "what a thing wants
to be"17). Being beyond physical and measurable existence, this psychic entity is
never completely realized in concrete terms. Thus, form has infinite potential for
expression. According to Kahn, form manifests through unconscious and conscious
agencies called thresholds, instruments and at other times singularities 18). It is
revealed most dramatically in non-conscious nature through the phenomenal source of
light, the sun:

12The sun is the threshold where the urges arise to express,

it is the source of energy and all present. 19).
13From the sun, the natural world of appearances takes its physical being. The human
soul partakes of form, he said, through its universal sharing in the pervasive world
psyche. Through the medium of the individual human personality, form is realized
consciously as art.
Psyches descent from non-temporal form into time and space is a complete
weltanschauung that unites spirit to matter. Kahn called his world view order20). Order
is all inclusive and self-evident. Reminiscent of the greek concept of kosmos, order
gives significance and meaning to existence. This is because order is rooted in the non
arbitrary nature of form -- the psyches eternal existence will. In two diagrams

delineated by Kahn for a 1973 publication, he presented order hierarchically following

psyche and form.

figure 1

figure 2

14In figure 1, he denoted the essential and existential aspects of order as: "psychic
order" and "physical order" 21). Kahn depicted order, the manifestation of meaningful
world, in the poetic imagery of "silence to light, light to silence". Order manifesting as
light is a perpetual enantiodrama of polarities forever turning into their opposites.
Kahns concept of form -- its universal, timeless nature grounded in psyche -- was an
essential component through which he intended to imbue his architecture with meaning
and value. Consequently, he founded his art upon form and its manifestations in order.

His aesthetic theory is based upon the assumption that a language held in common
can indicate meaning through a system of shared signifiers.

The means to make the non sensible aspect of form sensible, is the symbol, the apt
visual metaphor.

15"I see symbol as being multifaceted. Its like looking into a mirror in which everybody
looks alike because the distinction between one and the other is miniscule.
Therefore, the architect must practice his discipline as a poet and search for
appropriate visual symbols.

He said:
16 When you say a thing is poetic, you are giving it the very highest compliments you
can give because it expresses that which is trying to eliminate the word. And so when
you are saying that a thing has a poetic quality youre really saying that it has a
transcendent quality. Poetry is the aura of religion bathing over the words of man.22)

17 In Kahns mind, the art of architecture is a poetic language. It is non verbal,

consisting of physical ciphers meant to be read. Architecture "speaks" through silent
but evocative, corporeal images directed to the eye. To translate "physical order" and

psychic order" into the language of architecture, Kahn dialectically applied two means
of poetic production. His architecture is simultaneously a mimetic and a non-mimetic
art. In his master work, he used the poetic process of mimesis to make the existent will,
the forms of natural "physical order" intelligible. For example, to express the nature of
materials -- "what it wants to be" -- he used only constructive methods that imitated
faithfully a materials particular manifest character. Kahn is famous for his application of
mimesis to the compressive nature of brick masonry:

18If you talk to a brick and ask it what it likes itll say it likes an arch. And you say to it,
look arches are expensive and you can always use a concrete lintel to take the place of
an arch. And the brick says, I know its expensive and Im afraid it probably can not be
built these days, but if you ask me what I like, its still an arch 23).
19The mimetic taste of Kahn, the existentialist, is logically opposed to the non mimetic
taste of Kahn, the essentialist. To make the "psychic order" of form sensible, Kahn
proposed the use of non-mimetic, symbolic images.
Because of physical necessity, therefore, the architect must integrate the "allegory" of
"psychic order" within the tangible limits of "physical order", structure and function. The
architect must achieve two meanings with one image. It must be multivalent -- a
simultaneous mimetic and non-mimetic expression.
In order to further his "allegorical", symbolic ends, Kahn consciously inscribed
primordial pictographic-like images within his work. The key to deciphering this
"Rosetta Stone" is Kahns use of an ancient triangular pictograph, D , signifying the
Egyptian pyramid. From the 1950s on, Kahn employed 2 and 3 dimensional variations
of the pyramid in his work as an eternal, yet, still viable, modern symbol of physical and
spiritual light.
20 Although he did not ascribe any symbolic significance to it, Vincent Scully was the
first to note the importance of the pyramidal image used throughout Kahns mature
work. For example, triangular structures are presented first, clearly and insistently, in
the ceiling of the Yale Art Gallery Addition. The design of the Yale Art Gallery Addition
ceiling was inspired by a space frame, although it acts structurally as a series of
concrete beams ornamented by an infill of concrete tetrahedrons. The technological
precedent for this advanced structural image is linked to Buckminister Fuller and the
work of office member Anne G. Tyng 24). Kahns non-mimetic reasoning for using the
static pyramid was justified by its archaic allegorical meaning. A book by a prominent
egyptologist in his private library, where Kahn discovered this architectural hieroglyphic,
explained the ancient significance of the pyramid symbol. In The Pyramids of Egypt,
I.E.S. Edwards writes:
21 But what did the benben (the primitive stone fetish of pyramidal shape) and its
architectural derivative, the true pyramid, represent? Only one answer suggest itself:
the rays of the sun shining down on earth. A remarkable spectacle may sometimes be
seen in the late afternoon of a cloudy winter day at Giza. When standing on the road to
Saqqara and gazing westward at the Pyramid plateau, it is possible to see the suns
rays striking downward through a gap in the clouds at about the same angle as the

slope of the Great Pyramid. The impression made in the mind by the sense is that the
immaterial prototype and the material replica are here ranged side by side 25).

figure 5

22 Edwards further detailed that the benben symbolized the material manifestation of
the sun god in the Egyptian creation myth. He also said that the triangular form created
a celestial ramp on which the dead Pharohs soul would make its way upward to
heaven. This ancient architectural symbol of light and its two dimensional hieroglyph
expressed perfectly Kahns personal world view. Kahn used the pyramidal shape and
its two dimensional cipher, the triangle, in his "Silence to Light" diagrams, circa 1969, to
express in architectonic ideograph his essentialist sense of "order".

23 The static formal qualities of the triangle, tetrahedron and pyramid also embody the
architects scientific conception that the one unvarying absolute in a relative universe is
the measure of light. Kahns understanding of contemporary physics was based upon
that of Albert Einstein. Esther Kahn has related that in the late 1930s Kahn travelled to
Princeton to have tea with the great scientist 26). Kahn apparently agreed with
Einsteins intuition, "that God does not play dice", a suggestion that underlying relativity,
there are eternal absolutes, like Kahns own concept of form. The architect celebrated
Einsteins vision of the primacy of light in a relative world with the statement, "E=MC2 is
a beautiful poem."27) Trained in the drawing methods of an American Beaux Arts
education, Kahn would have also recognized the 3D pyramidal form as a kind of
perspective cone, the pyramid of vision. Similarly, the 2D triangle would recall the
ambiguous, condensed spaces of Post Impressionist art in which flatness alluded to
the timeless and the primitive. Kahn used these modes of visual expression in his
paintings and travel sketches creating simultaneous, multiple views of the phenomenal
world. He also applied these pictorial devices, perspectival space and flatness, to
create architectural allegories eliciting Einsteins relative cosmos premised on light as
an absolute. In his master work he repeatedly presents the cube viewed in perspective
on its diagonal which forms a pyramidal figure on the retina. (For example Kahn's
Exeter Library in Exeter NH.) He juxtaposed at the same time this perspective image
with triangular contours seen flat in elevation. This enigmatic triangular and pyramidal
imagery creates through a subtle allegory parallels to Einsteinian physics. According to
the relativity of ones frame of reference, the phenomena of lights complementarity -both as material particle existing in space / time and pure energy, being of infinity, when

travelling at its own measure -- are symbolized paradoxically with concurrent pyramidal
perspectives and flat triangular figures in elevations.

24 Kahns symbolic use of the image of a tomb from a primitive agrarian culture rests in
part upon its metaphysical content associated in Egyptian mythology with the daily
resurrection of the sun. In this mortuary context, when the cube is viewed in pyramidal
perspective, it displays the "cartesian", phenomenal world of x,y and z axes as a tomb
28). Kahns eight sided faceted cubes are really octagons. An octagonal volume, like
the pyramid, is an architectural symbol across time associated with resurrection. In this
manner, Kahns architecture parlante, demonstrates that energy as "spent light" is not
destroyed in the eternal movement from "Silence to Light, Light to Silence". The
architectural hieroglyphic of the pyramid, which literally meant "the castle of eternity",
embodied Kahns belief in the creative and immortal nature of the individual human
soul rooted in psyche. The purpose of humankind is to manifest this invisible
quintessence in the visible world consciously. He summarized this philosophy in his
expressionist theory:

25 It is my belief that we live to express. The whole motivation of presence is to

express. And what nature gives us is the instrument of expression which we all know
as ourselves, which is like giving the instrument upon which the song of the soul can be
played.29)
The sense of physical well-being comes from the desire to live forever: to express 30).
26 With Kahns use of triangular imagery to signify light, one may further develop the
A,B,Cs of his architectural language and infer the meaning of his various uses of the
circle and the square. The circle appears to be Kahns cypher for psyche, Silence and
Volume "0". Following primitive architectural norms, as with his use of the pyramid, the
circle and related arcuated imagery in his work recalls the celestial tent traditional
associated with divinity and divine authority. The square and the cube presents Kahns
conceit of matter being "spent light". The square, by time-honored custom, signifies the
element of earth and the material world with its 4 cardinal directions. The cube is an
alchemical image of perfected earth, as well as embodying the cartesian dimensions of
measurement in the phenomenal world. Reading Kahns architectonic poetry, his vision
of order is made concrete. The material world of spent light manifests within to without
from an inner sanctuary of psyche, Silence and form. He presented this "world within
the world" in his work by composing structures within structures. In Kahns architecture
parlante, humankind, like psyche, is also enshrined architecturally as an interior
sanctuary for the holy revelation of "inner" light in time and space. The self conscious
species existing at the threshold between "Silence and Light" is both microcosm and
microtheos, a free and creative vehicle of the world psyche.

27 For Kahn, architecture, orders not only physical space, but it also orders
humankinds metaphysical experience of the world. By poetic means, the architect

makes the conceptual sensible and the physical intelligible. When a work expresses
human existence in this manner, it reunites humankinds often alienated twin natures -psyche and soma -- in wholeness. Architecture makes one most at home in the world
by offering both spiritual and physical sanctuary. It fulfills a sacred function of dealienation, conjoining opposites. Kahn described as "well being" the experience of
amalgamated polarities that true design precipitates. He said:

28 I feel fusion of the senses 31).

29 Kahns master work parallels Heideggers fourfold -- the union of the sky, earth,
mortals and immortals. In Kahns architecture of "well-being", humankind "dwells" when
expressing psyche, epitomized in Kahns statement: "the desire to live forever to
express." Because of Norberg-Schulz absorbtion in Heideggers philosophy, he not
only overlooks Kahns "essentialism", but is blinded by this philosophical prejudice in
his reading of Kahns "expressionist theory". He therefore ignored the architects real
poetic achievement of an authentic architectural language that presents both
existentialist and transcendentalist space.

30 The crucial difference between the two world views of Kahn and Heidegger -- no
matter their parallels concerns regarding: the irrational, the phenomenal world,
individual freedom, and overcoming alienation through a dynamic amalgamation of
subjectivity and objectivity (otherness) -- Heideggers existentialist position is grounded
in a nihilistic void, an abyss of "meaninglessness", while Kahns mystical and
essentialist based cosmos is rooted in a world soul that he called "psyche"32).

References

1) John W. Cook and Heinrich Klotz, Conversations with Architects: Philip Johnson,
Kevin Roche, paul Rudolph, Bertrand Goldberg, Morris lapidus, Louis Kahn, Charles
Moore, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown (New york: Praeger Publishers, 1974)
181. In a conversation with the architect circa 1972, Klotz noted: "I have the impression
that you no longer distinguish between subject and object, you do not acknowledge the
difference between human subject and the objective world. I am reminded of
Heideggers ontology."

2) Christian Norberg-Schulz, "The Message of Louis Kahn", Architecture, Meaning and

Place, Selected Essays (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1988), 201206.

3) Norberg-Schulz, "The Message of Louis Kahn", 201.

4) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 35.

5) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 35.

6) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 31.

7) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 35.

8) Christian Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture",

Oppositions 18 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, Fall 1979), 28-47.

9) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 36-37. "In

Being and Time he says, in as much as any entity within-the-world is likewise in space,
its spatiality will have ontological connection with the world . . . . In particular we must
show how the aroundness of the environment . . . is founded upon the worldhood of the
world. In his later writing Heidegger solves the problem, defining space in terms of
earth and sky, that is, as an interrelation of the concrete places which are present
between earth and sky. To Heidegger space is therefore not an abstract, mathematical
concept, but a concrete structure within the world."

Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 36. NorbergSchulz explains that Heidegger achieved this, however, without analyzing the
properties of the concrete structure of world. He explains: "Already in Being and Time
Heidegger had analyzed "discourse" as one of the basic existential structures. Thus he
said, The intelligibility of Being-in-the-world expresses itself as discourse. Moreover he
stresses that discourse is existentially equiprimordial with state-of-mind and
understanding and that in discourse being-with becomes explicitly shared. We are, in
other words, discourse. The way in which discourse gets expressed is language.
Language therefore does not primarily serve communication, but discloses the basic
existential structures. Primarily language speaks, and man only speaks as he
responds to language."

10) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 41.

11) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 40-41. "To
him [Heidegger] dwelling means something more than to reside in a place; it means
how mortals are in the fourfold, that is, an authentic relationship between man and the
existential structures. Thus dwelling becomes the basic character of Being.
Furthermore he says, Dwelling keeps the fourfold in that with which mortals stay: in
things. Dwelling preserves the fourfold by bringing the presencing of the fourfold into
things. That means, man dwells when his able to embody the basic existential
structures in things such as buildings or places (locations). In fact Heidegger says that
a location (place) installs the fourfold. As an art, architecture helps man to dwell in the
true sense of the word, that is, poetically. Poetry build up the very nature of dwelling.
Poetry and dwelling not only do not exclude each other; on the contrary, poetry and
dwelling belong together, each calling for the other. As poetry, the nature of building is
letting dwell. Thus Heidegger discloses the basic existential importance of architecture:
Man dwells in that he builds."

12) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 37.

13) Norberg-Schulz, "Kahn, Heidegger and the Language of Architecture", 37.

14) Louis I. Kahn, "A Statement by Louis I. Kahn", a paper delivered at the International
Design Conference, Aspen, Colorado, Arts and Architecture, 81, (May 1964): 19.

15) Vincent Scully, Jr., Louis I. Kahn (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1962): 118.

16) Louis I. Kahn, "Louis I. Kahn Talks with Students", Architecture at Rice, 26
(Houston, Texas: Rice University, 1969): 24.

17) Louis I. Kahn, "Louis I. Kahn Talks with Students", 13.

18) Louis I. Kahn, "Remarks: Louis I. Kahn.", Perspecta, 9/10 (New Haven,
Connecticut, Yale School of Architecture, 1965): 305.

19) August Komendant, Eighteen Years with Architect Louis I. Kahn (Englewood, New
Jersey: Aloray Publishers, 1974): 183.

20) Architectuale Forum, Volumme 137, No. 1 (July/August 1972): 46. Kahn said: "I
came to a statement that order is because I could never write what it is . . . I made a
long list of what I thought it was. And when I threw the list away, order is remained. it
sort of included everything by not trying to say what it is. That word is has a
tremendous presence."

21) "Louis Kahn, Silence to Light", Architecture and Urbanism, 01 (1973): 47.

22) Robert Wemischner, 3.

23) "Louis Kahn Talks", House and Garden (October 1972): 219.

24) Joseph A. Burton, "Notes from Volume Zero, Louis I. Kahn and the Language of
God", Perspecta 20 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 1983).

25) I.E.S. Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt (New York: Penguin Books, 1952): 289290.

26) Esther I. Kahn, conversations with the author (Philadelphia: 1978-1991).

27) Ronner, Jhaveri and Vasella, 447.

28) Plato in his dialogues, The Republic and Phaedo, described the phenomenal world
as a prison and a tomb, respectively. This imagery has been explored by architects in
the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Piranesi, Ledoux and Soane, for example.

29) Ronner, Sharad and Vasella, 447.

30) Ronner, Sharad and Vasella, 449.

31) lArchitecture dAujourdhui, 142, 15.

32) John D. Caputo, The Mystical Element in Heideggers Thought (Athens, Ohio: Ohio
University Press, 1978): 245-254.