Salk Institute, Louis Kahn

Louis Kahn

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Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn

Louis Kahn was born in 1901 in Parnu, Estonia and died in New York City in 1974. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania where he later became a professor in 1957. He was a professor of architecture at Yale University in 1947 and in 1950-51 he was architect in residence at the American Academy in Rome. Besides holding chairs in various institutions, he received many design awards as well.

He began his own studio in 1935, after years of working in firms. His style was largely International until he reached 50 years of age when he became most influential.

His most significant works

 

Yale University Art Gallery:

Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery

According to the Yale University Art Gallery website: “The Yale University Art Gallery and Design Center was Kahn’s first significant commission and is widely considered his first masterpiece. When it opened in 1953, the building included open spaces for the exhibition of art and studio spaces for use by art and architecture students. Constructed of masonry, concrete, glass, and steel, and presenting a windowless wall along its most public facade, the Kahn building was the first modernist structure at Yale. Kahn’s design has been celebrated not only for its beauty, geometry, and light, but also for its structural and engineering innovations, particularly the tetrahedral ceiling and cylindrical main staircase.”

Lobby of the Kahn Building, Yale University Art Gallery (1951-53)
Lobby of the Kahn Building, Yale University Art Gallery (1951-53)

 

 

Richards Medical Research Laboratories:

Rather than go into great detail about the served buildings and the serving buildings, the windowed areas are laboratories while the towers are for air treatment. The towers are brick-faced concrete, much like the ancient Roman insulae or apartments and many other structures built in the time of the Empire. The towers also harken back to the Renaissance and become a significant aesthetic look of the building.

 

Construction did not include the structural steel as used in International Style buildings. Kahn built with reinforced concrete without any attempt to hide this material. A further divergence from the International Style comes from the total disregard for the appearance of weight and load, the International Style emphasizing a light, airy appearance. The influence of the departure from this style was very influential in American Modernism and finds its’ extreme expression in Brutalist architecture.

Salk Institute:

The Salk Institute is a monument to symmetry and contemplation. Offices are on either side of a central water feature that helps the eye move to the horizon. From one end, one sees stark concrete forms aligned on each side further directing one’s view. From the other end, the regular rhythm of windows look at you as if in examination. All these windows have this orientation and provide a view toward the coast. This sense of order and rectitude, reflects the sometimes monastic nature of science in the furtherance of human knowledge and condition. There are no diversions here. The direction is ineluctable and predetermined by the laws of nature. In some respects, Kahn blurs the already tenuous lines between sculpture and architecture. If no human activity took place in this facility, the artistic statement would be just as valid and the same.

 

 

 

National Parliament House of Bangladesh (Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban):

This is another design by Kahn that, depending on whomever one talks to, is said to be one of the greatest architectural works of the 20th century. Certainly, an antithesis of International Style buildings which have large expanses of glass on steel frames, the National Parliament is monolithic and monumental in scale, with no attempt to subdue an appearance of heft. The sculptural effect of the use of reinforced concrete and the use of regular geometric forms is one of a continuous arrangement, as if poured all at one time. Surprisingly, a thorough sensitivity to ambient light incorporates a gothic cathedral quality to the entry of light into the interior spaces.

Phillips Exeter Academy Library:

Commissioned in 1965, the library was opened in 1971 and was stocked with around 60,000 volumes. Eventually the library came to include 160,000 volumes to fill the various levels of this cubicular library. After going through innumerable revisions, the design included Kahn’s penchant for pure geometry and the juxtaposition of basic forms. The building is essentially a cube with two other buildings inside like Russian nesting dolls. The outer areas are the reading spaces or carrels, built of brick, while the inner area is the atrium made of reinforced concrete. The atrium is exposed to the various levels by huge perfect circles on all four sides. Unlike a neo-classical structure where the entrance is prominent, if not dominating, Kahn shunned the dominant entrance, preferring an entry that did not affect the over appearance. The entry is not at all obvious.

Another design feature is the vertical load bearing, brick struts on the exterior walls thick at the bottom, decreasing in width as they rise to the top. He also included window like structures at the very top that surround a perimeter on the roof, but have no glass. The corners of the structure are excluded in order to expose the structure underneath. The atrium receives light from clerestory windows at the top and dispersed by massive, crossed, cement beams for dramatic effect.

 

Kimbell Art Museum:

 

The Kimbell Art Museum is another Kahn work dealing in contemplation, symmetry and geometric order. The main form of the museum is a series of cycloid vaults. Originally, Kahn wanted true arches, but that was rejected because of the required height. Instead a flattened curve was accepted with a slot in the top for light to pour in and provide natural light. To prevent these flattened arches from collapsing, concrete struts were placed every 10 feet and a thick concrete arch was added to the ends to stiffen the shell even further. To decrease the tension on the flattened vaults, they were laid only 5 inches thick with pretensioned concrete and allowed for structural columns on only the corners.

Because of the strong attention to natural light, the Kimball is known for the amazing, rich display of artwork and the incredible, artistic ambience.

This has been a brief examination of some of Louis Kahn’s works. He was quite influential in American architecture, so many other works are left to examine. However, by the works exhibited, one can draw some conclusions about Kahn. He had an obsession for pure geometric symmetry as well as a love of masonry and sculpted concrete. He gave great thought to natural light and included it as an important element in the appropriate context of the purpose of the buildings he developed. He didn’t reject the past like many modernists, but learned from it.

 

HBosler

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