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mHe was an American architect and teacher

mBorn February 20, 1901, on the Isle of Osel, Estonia


mHe was taken to the United States as a child.
mHe got a degree in architecture at the University of
Pennsylvania in 1924
mHe spent the first 20 years of his practice mostly in
association with other architects, working on a great
variety of projects, many involving new housing.
mHe passed away on march 17, 1974.
mHe defined space by means of masonry masses and a
lucid structure laid out in geometric, formal schemes
and axial layouts with a strong processional character
of space and images.
mHe believed that the function of the building was its
intended use or the "human institution" the building
was to serve.
mThese "human institutions" stemmed from the
inspiration to live which, according to Kahn, is
threefold; the inspiration to learn, the inspiration to
meet, and the inspiration for well-being.
mHe constantly asked the question "What does the
building want to be?³ thus his creation were an
answering architectural form. Buildings were not inert
configurations of form and space but living organic
entities.
mHe 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 his
realization with a few who did not know they were
students . . . the existence-will of school was there even
before the circumstances of a man under a tree. That is
why is good for the mind to go back to the beginning,
because the beginning of any established activity is its
most wonderful moment."
m to him function had to accommodate itself to the form,
but only in so far as the form itself had been invented
from a profound understanding of the overall task in the
first place.
mBeauty was not within his immediate concerns.
mTrue expression and appropriateness to use were his
primary concerns.
mFor Kahn it was natural light that brought architecture
to life; the artificial light had an unvarying "dead"
quality in contrast to the ever-changing daylight.
mLight, for him, was not only an instrument of our
perception of things, but the very source of matter itself.
mHe was especially attracted to the cyclic nature of light
and attributed great psychological and metaphysical
significance to its daily and seasonal fluctuations.
mKahn saw architectural elements, such as the column,
arch, dome, and vault, in their capacity of molding light
and shadow.
mTo him spaces were equally important.
mHe defined his work as ³the thoughtful making of
spaces´ and bore this out by making his interiors
generally more striking than his exteriors.
mHis buildings were divided into two main divisions ±
The Served Spaces and The Servant Spaces.
mLocation: New Heaven,
Connecticut
mDate: 1969 to 1974
mBuilding Type: art
museum with mixed use
retail
m Construction System:
concrete
mClimate: temperate
mMain feature
Expressed frame and
infillO
mThe building has a discreet, grey, monotone exterior
of steel and reflective glass
mIts clearly read concrete frame confer a certain
noble, armored mien appropriate to its purpose.
mInside the building the visitor experiences the same
clarity and organization seen on the exterior.
mYale Center for British Art is based on a repetitive
20-foot-square grid, was formally conceived as a
series of highly structured 'roomlike' spaces.
mThe whole ambiance of the building is rich,
seductive, and well-scaled.
mThe exposed concrete structure with oak paneled
inserts gives a warmer, more sedate feeling
mv  Bryn Mawr,
Pennsylvania
m±1960 to 1965
m„ 
  college
dormitories
m '     
concrete frame, CMU
infill, slate cladding
m' temperate
m' suburban
campus
m Intersecting
diamond plans with
services at core and
rooms at periphery.
mThe building sits at the end of a suburban campus of a
college for girls.
mThe dormitory is conceived as a large house for
approximately 150 girls.
mThe plan is structured by three halls defined by large
hoods, which rise above the roof to bring in natural light.
mThe 'walls' of these halls contain the 'servant' spaces.
mThe individual rooms for the students make up the
periphery of each of the three squares.
mEach central space is formed by four bath units directly
related to the served bedrooms. The rectangular areas
defined by the bath units serve as stairwells, balconies,
and passageways. These areas are lit by skylights."
mConnections are achieved at the corners.
mConstruction consists of reinforced concrete frame with
cinder block walls covered with slate on the exterior and
plaster inside.
mv  Chestnut Hill,
Pennsylvania
m±1959 to 1961
m„ 
  house
m'     wood
frame, dark stucco, large
windows
m' temperate
m' suburban
mKahn built relatively few houses. In each there seems
to be a larger-scale building trying to escape from the
confines of the client's budget.
mIn the Esherick House, the inherent monumentality of
the plan is diminished by the fact that the major living
spaces are surrounded by very thick walls.
mIn the double-height living room, the fireplace wall is
literally deep.
mThe opposite wall also has a fireplace used in the
bathroom, but the wall is thicker containing a zone of
servant spaces, kitchen, bathrooms, closets which are
not part of the axial symmetry of the two major living
spaces.
mThe two window walls are also thick but these frame
walls have niches between the casements.
mThe most intricate planning occurs on the first floor
where the sliding doors between the gallery and
bedroom, and then between bedroom and bathroom,
suggest a flow of space from void to room to altar.
mv  Exeter, New
Hampshire
m±1967 to 1972
m„ 
  school library
m '     
reinforced concrete
m' temperate
m' school campus
m organized around
powerful central space.
mElemental in its contemporary directness and
built also with the sense and durability of the
great monuments of history is the Library at
Philips Exeter Academy.
mIn the spirit of the grand, classical tradition of
the focal organizing space, the reading room is a
central hall encircled by balconies containing the
stacks and study alcoves.
mIt is a space diagonally overlooked through
giant circular openings in the interior screen
walls that define the central area.
mIn keeping with the campus tradition, the exterior
of the building is a repetition of brick piers, wider as
they approach the ground where the book loads are
greater, cut back at all four corners to subtly
articulate the building's exterior square form.
mThe perimeter study carrels are illuminated from
windows above the reader's eye level; smaller
windows at eye level afford views to the campus or
conversely can be closed by a sliding wooden shutter
for privacy and concentration.
mv  Fort Worth, texas
m±1967 to 1972
m„ 
  art museum
m '     
reinforced concrete
m' temperate
m' urban park setting
m vaulted ceilings with
integrated daylighting
mThe Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn is
also a disciplined, coherent, and visually
clear statement, but here the aesthetics
derive from the more classically oriented
sensibility of its architect.
mIt has an austere yet rich simplicity that
comes from the repetition of a vaultlike
form, given a dull sheen from its lead-
covered exterior, and a beautifully
articulated concrete structural frame with
infill paneled walls of travertine.
mIts interior form, bathed in a diffused
natural light that enters the space via
continuous interior suspended screen and
reflected downward off the curve of the
vault.
mv  Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
m±1957 to 1961
m„ 
  laboratories,
offices
m '     precast
concrete with trusses, brick
m' temperate
m' urban campus
m University of
Pennsylvania. separation of
service and primary spaces.
mThe Medical Research Building at the University
of Pennsylvania is conceived in recognition of the
realization that science laboratories are studios
mThere are three great stacks of studios and
attach to them tall service towers which would
include animal quarters, mains to carry water,
gas and vacuum lines, as well as vertical ducts to
breathe
mThis design, an outcome of the consideration of
the unique use of its spaces and how they are
served characterizes what it is for."
mv  Ahmedabad,
India
m±1963
m„ 
  school of
government
m '     brick
masonry and concrete
m' desert
m' urban
m Heavy layered walls
modulate sun and capture
ventilating breezes.
mThe organization of the complex, as well as its
architecture, reflects the conceptual organization of
learning which is focused on three inevitable
components: the school, the students, and the teachers.
mThe architect chooses and arranges to express in
spaces environment and in relationships man's
institutions.
mv  La Jolla, California
m±1959 to 1966
m„ 
  research laboratories and offices
m '     reinforced concrete
m' mild
m' seaside
m stark but elegantly detailed, abstracted modern
shapes combined with a formal symmetry
mIn the laboratories the vertical ducts of the Richards
Building have been turned on their sides, housed in the
hollows of spanning box girders and vented from huge
hoods at the flanks of the building.
mThe pre-cast units of structure have thus continued to
become larger as the crane can lift them.
mIn this building the two spaces- the served space and
the servant space form out to be integrated as a single
unit, first time to appear in Kahn¶s design

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