Described in his New York Times obituary as having been 鈥渙ne of America鈥檚 foremost living architects鈥, Louis Kahn (1901-1974) was an expert manipulator of form and space, a masterful choreographer of light, and a trailblazing visionary amongst the architects of the mid-20th century. Both a contemporary of and influence on leading names such as Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Peter Zumthor and Sou Fujimoto, Kahn was categorised as a Modernist, and although his design ethos is certainly in keeping with the movement鈥檚 principle of 鈥渇orm follows function鈥, his heavy aesthetic is far removed from the light panels and glass panes that were favoured by Modernist architects such as Le Corbusier or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
An artist as much as he was an architect, Kahn was uncompromising in his attitude towards his designs. This has meant that few of his ideas were ever realised, so his legacy is chiefly represented by his everlasting impact upon future architectural generations, and in a handful of remarkable institutions such as the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, which was designed to be 鈥渁 facility worthy of a visit by Picasso鈥, and otherworldly, monumental forms such as the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture was initially presented by the Vitra Design Museum in 2013 and stands as the first major retrospective of Kahn鈥檚 work in two decades. An archive of the designer鈥檚 life as much as a survey of his work, the exhibition encompasses an unprecedented number of original sketches, paintings and photographs from Kahn鈥檚 many travels, as well as previously unpublished film footage which was shot by his son Nathanial Kahn, who directed the intimate documentary portrait My Architect 鈥(2003).
Alex Newson 鈥 curator at the Design Museum, London, where the exhibition appeared 9 July 鈥 12 October 2014 鈥 explains that these personal elements are necessary inclusions due to the way in which Kahn was 鈥渋nfluenced by his travels, the architecture and the antiquities he saw all over the world. I don鈥檛 think you can tell the story of [Kahn鈥檚] architecture without telling his story; without doing that you鈥檙e missing a piece of the puzzle.鈥
Not only influenced by the explorative life he led as an adult, Kahn鈥檚 career may also have been greatly affected by his youth. Born in Estonia to impoverished Jewish parents, and emigrating to Philadelphia before the age of five, Kahn was home-schooled due to his weak constitution after a severe bout of scarlet fever and the facial scars left by an earlier accident. When he finally attended school, he was introverted, yet so gifted that he eventually won a scholarship to study architecture at the University of Pennsylvania; here he was given an Ecole des Beaux-Arts training by Frenchman Paul Philippe Cret, an unusual education for an American architect.
The combination of Kahn鈥檚 low self-esteem, immigrant status, artistic temperament and the fact that he worked through the 1930s Depression were all contributing factors to Kahn鈥檚 lack of a concrete success 鈥 literally 鈥 during his lifetime. However, it was his artistic eye and appreciation for a broad range of cultures which made his work so significant, and Kahn himself 鈥渧ery different from any architect practising at the time or since.鈥
Kahn made brave decisions: 鈥淗e worked in parts of the world which were perhaps unfashionable to work in at the time 鈥 in Bangladesh for example 鈥 where none of (his more evidently successful contemporaries) were working.鈥 Still, it was in Bangladesh that Kahn鈥檚 most iconic work was realised: the National Assembly Building in Dhaka (1962-1983). Seen as the epitome of Kahn鈥檚 work, this vast structure was completed 鈥 unfortunately posthumously 鈥 by hundreds of local labourers strictly according to regional construction methods. It is an example of a completed version of Kahn鈥檚 idealised 鈥渃ity of the future鈥: 200 acres of reinforced concrete and brickwork, it holds all seven of Bangladesh鈥檚 parliaments and incorporates meeting places, restaurants, offices and places of worship as well as lakes, residences and lawns. Channelling light through large geometric porticoes it illustrates Kahn鈥檚 masterful 鈥渦nderstanding of how light can change a building鈥, Newson also states: 鈥淎rchitecture appears for the first time when the sunlight hits a wall. The sunlight did not know what it was before it hit a wall. He did things completely in his own way and that鈥檚 why the architectural community holds him in such high regard: because he did stand alone.鈥
To survey the life and work of such a fascinating character is no mean feat, and to do so The Power of Architecture 鈥墂as divided into six sections: City, Science, Landscape, House, Eternal Present and Community. City 鈥examined the relationship between Kahn and his work in Philadelphia, his adoptive home and in which 鈥渉e taught for a great number of years, and spent a lot of time trying and failing to remodel.鈥 To Kahn the city was a laboratory in which to experiment with new architectural principles and, possibly for this reason: 鈥淗e had quite a fractured relationship with the city planners in Philadelphia and (the city) was something that mattered to him a great deal.鈥
Science 鈥渓ooks at structure and how Kahn鈥檚 buildings are built. His was not a typical modernist perspective: he used a lot of brick, stone and concrete but there was also quite a lot of high tech structural engineering to underpin that.鈥 Much of Kahn鈥檚 structural development occurred during his work at Yale University; it was with colleagues such as futurist, inventor and architect Richard Buckminster Fuller (perhaps an unlikely choice for Kahn, as a Modernist) and engineer August E. Komendant, a fellow Estonian immigrant, that Kahn created entirely new methods of concrete construction 鈥 later utilised for the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven (1951-1953) and the Richards Medical Research Laboratories in Philadelphia (1957-1965). Although varied, the cubic Art Gallery and high-rise towers of the Laboratories are both formed of prefabricated concrete pieces and so do not need the foundations and steel framing required by more traditional builds.
Conversely to Kahn鈥檚 status as a second-generation Modernist, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories have even been recognised as a 鈥減otent design alternative to International Modernism鈥 by Emily Cooperman, a specialist in historic preservation at the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. Whilst Modernist buildings create unified spaces and minimise weight and load, within this Laboratory building Kahn made divides between served and servant spaces (i.e. areas for maintenance work), evoked historic architectural forms and used an openly weight-bearing structure. The progress and debate incited by Kahn鈥檚 seemingly simple design for the Richards Medical Laboratories has allowed the building to become one of his most influential works, and it has been hailed one of the most significant pieces of architecture to have been built after World War II.
As his design for the Richards Medical Laboratories communicates, the core of Kahn鈥檚 process was based on the notion: 鈥淟isten to what your materials can tell you.鈥 For example, when working with a material as strong as concrete, why not allow it to support itself? Something of an eccentric, Kahn is seen in My Architect 鈥塭xplaining his methodology, very literally, to a class: 鈥淚f you think of Brick, you say to Brick, 鈥榃hat do you want, Brick?鈥 And Brick says to you, 鈥業 would like an Arch.鈥 And if you say to Brick, 鈥楲ook, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that, Brick?鈥 Brick says, 鈥業 would like an Arch.鈥 It鈥檚 important, you see, that you honour the material that you use. […] You can only do it if you honour the brick and glorify the brick instead of short-changing it.鈥欌 It is filmic extracts such as this, which feature throughout the exhibition, that provide an intrigue and true authenticity.
Newson explains that Kahn was 鈥渧ery much a believer that there should be an honesty in the materials and their use.鈥 He continues: 鈥淟andscape relates to the idea that his buildings have such a strong relationship to their environments, and that there鈥檚 often a huge amount of landscaping which takes part in rooting them to this.鈥 Demonstrated by his work in Dhaka, natural forces not only inspired Kahn鈥檚 designs, but also became a contributing factor. Teaching his students that 鈥淎rchitecture is what nature cannot make. Architecture is something unnatural but not something made up,鈥 he observed sun and wind patterns to organise the positioning of daylight and to achieve passive climate control, and incorporated traditional building techniques which considered regional weather conditions.
House, studied Kahn鈥檚 residential designs 鈥 often prototypes for larger forms 鈥 and is linked to Community 鈥塨y the designer鈥檚 consideration of spaces in terms of human experience. Kahn studied the way that 鈥渓arge volumes affect people鈥檚 behaviour and how moving from a large to a small volume and into communal spaces impacts upon our emotions.鈥 With this in mind he looked at city planning as you would a house: residential districts become bedrooms, industrial areas are kitchens and streets are corridors. 鈥淜ahn was a big believer that buildings only exist due to their users, and that communities, as well as light, give right to architecture; they should be at core of what a building is and without people it鈥檚 just an empty monument.鈥
The social significance of building was at the epicentre of Kahn鈥檚 practice, and he is one of the very few (perhaps the only) leading architects ever to have designed a church, as well as many mosques and synagogues. His work is as sensory as it is scientific, which leads us to Eternal Present, which 鈥渄iscusses how [Kahn] looked to antiquity rather than Modernism.鈥
鈥淗e travelled a lot and said that he often envisaged his buildings as ruins to start with and worked backwards, placing his work in the context of Modernism and architecture history in general.鈥 Kahn was convinced that contemporary architects should produce buildings that were as dramatic and inspiring as the ancient columned ruins of Greece, as were his own designs. Newson notes that Kahn 鈥渨as not of a particular time as his buildings are monumental and spiritual; they have a root with antiquity which makes them timeless.鈥
This conviction explains the aesthetic and material differences between Kahn鈥檚 works and those of other Modernists. Newson explains that 鈥渢here鈥檚 a famous film called 鈥楬ow Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?鈥夆娾欌娾 which looks specifically at the work of English architect Norman Foster, and 鈥渢his idea that high-tech architects wanted (their buildings) to be weightless, and to appear to be floating. Kahn鈥檚 are very different 鈥 they were built from brick and from concrete and you can see those materials in the building. They weren鈥檛 hidden at all, so you can read its construction.鈥
Working in the era of glazing, steel and glass, it is Kahn鈥檚 honesty of materials and appreciation of immense structures that separated him from his contemporaries. He is best described as a 鈥渟econd generation Modernist鈥 who 鈥渉ad a very different interpretation of [the movement]: his was about weight and heft and buildings that were part of the landscape.鈥 Kahn鈥檚 work is still being realised today, with his floating President Franklin D Roosevelt memorial Four Freedoms Park only completed in 2012 鈥 characteristically featuring a granite roofless version of a Greek temple. Still, the architect鈥檚 story is as tragic as it is brilliant: he was bankrupt, alone, and carrying the unfinished designs for Four Freedoms Park 鈥墂hen he died on 17 March 1974 in New York鈥檚 Pennsylvania Station, on his way home after a trip to India.
While Newson states that 鈥渁ll architects that you speak to, even people like Richard Rogers, say they look to him as a source of inspiration鈥, Kahn was perhaps a victim of his own ambition, as clients and city planners found it difficult 鈥渢o fully understand his vision. Kahn wasn鈥檛 willing to compromise his designs, but that鈥檚 why we now have such wonderful lasting buildings, because of his purity of vision.鈥 Newson sums him up: 鈥淯nique is possibly not the best word, but it鈥檚 very hard to find a Modern architect to compare him to.鈥
Form Follows Function appeared in Issue 59 of Aesthetica. More details can be found at
Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture 鈥塺an from 9 July 鈥 12 October 2014 at The Design Museum, London. For more information, visit .
Chloe Hodge
Credits
1. Louis Kahn, image courtesy of Vitra Design Museum, Raymond Meier.
