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LOUIS KAHN

Louis Isadore Kahn (February 20, 1901 or 1902 March 17, 1974) was a
world-renowned architect who practiced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
later served as a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania
and at Yale University.
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Life
Louis Kahn, whose original name was Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky
(Schmalowski), was born in Kuressaare on the Estonian island of Saaremaa,
then part of the Russian Empire. His actual birth year may have been
inaccurately recorded when,
in 1905, his Jewish family
immigrated to the United
States, fearing that his
father would be recalled
into the military during the
Russo-Japanese War. He
was raised in Philadelphia
and became a naturalized
citizen on May 15, 1914.

He trained in a rigorous
Beaux-Arts tradition, with
its emphasis on drawing, at
the University of
Pennsylvania. After
completing his Master's
degree in 1924, Kahn made
a European tour and settled
in the medieval walled city
of Carcassonne (France), rather than any of the strongholds of classicism or
modernism. In 19251926 the bowtie-sporting Kahn served as Chief
Designer for the Sesquicentennial Exposition. From 1947 he spent a decade
teaching at Yale, where his influence was paramount, then moved to Penn.
His prominent apprentices include Moshe Safdie and Robert Venturi.

He died of a heart attack in a bathroom in Pennsylvania Station in New York

City. He was not identified for three days, as he had crossed out the home
address on his passport. He had just returned from a work trip to India, and
despite his long career, he was deeply in debt at death.

Louis Kahn's work infused International style with a fastidious, highly

personal taste, poetry of light. His few projects reflect his deep personal
involvement with each. Isamu Noguchi called him "a philosopher among
architects". While widely known for his spaces' poetic sensibilities, Kahn also
worked closely with engineers and contractors on his buildings. The results
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were often technically innovative and highly refined. His work was highly
influential among 'high tech' architects of the late 20th century (i.e. Renzo
Piano and Norman Foster) in addition to those who hewed more closely to
his heavier, more monumental style (Tadao Ando, for example).

Memorial park in his honour at 11th & Pine Streets in Philadelphia.

Kahn had three different families with

three different women: his wife,
Esther; Anne Tyng, a co-worker; and
Harriet Pattison. His obituary in the
New York Times, written by Paul
Goldberger, famously mentions only
Esther and his daughter by her as
survivors. But in 2003, Kahn's son
with Pattison, Nathaniel Kahn,
released an Oscar-nominated
biographical documentary about his
father, titled My Architect: A Son's
Journey, which gives glimpses of the
architecture while focusing on talking
to the people who knew him: family, friends and colleagues. It includes
interviews with renowned architect contemporaries such as B. V. Doshi,
Frank Gehry, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, and Robert A. M. Stern, but also an
insider's view of Kahn's unusual family arrangements.

The unusual manner of his death is used as a point of departure and a

metaphor for Kahn's "nomadic" life in the film.

Important works
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut (19511953), the
first significant commission of Louis Kahn and his first masterpiece,
replete with technical innovations, like a floor slab system giving
access to mechanical systems, and a somewhat 'brutalist' shock to
Yale's neo-Gothic context
Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (19571965), regarding which Kahn said,
No space you can devise can satisfy these requirements. I thought
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what they should have was a corner for thought, in a word, a studio
instead of slices of space
Jonas Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, (19591965),
Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, New Hampshire, (1965
1972), awarded the Twenty-Five year award by the American Institute
of Architects
Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National Assembly Building) in Dhaka,
Bangladesh (19621974), considered to be his masterpiece and one of
the great monuments of International Modernism
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, (19671972)
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, (19691974)
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in India

Timeline of Works
All dates refer to the year work commenced

1951 - Yale University Art Gallery

1954 - Trenton Bath House
1957 - Richards Medical Centre
1959 - Salk Institute
1959 - Esherick House
1959 - First Unitarian Church of Rochester
1960 - Bryn Mawr College's Erdman Hall Dormitory and Cafeteria
1960 - Norman Fisher House
1963 - Institute of Public Administration
1962 - National Assembly Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh
1967 - Phillips Exeter Academy Library
1967 - Kimbell Art Museum
1969 - Yale Center for British Art
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Philosophy

Kahns fascination with

abstract architecture within
early American modernism
can already be clearly sensed
in this building. But the
building is also fascinating
because of its BRUTALITY.
The fact that the surrounding
terraced buildings are
completely ignored in favour
of this simplified block
building.
Holes are punched in the
main faade of the entrance
area on the street side. They
follow functional principles as openings wherever they are needed as such,
one to provide light on the stairs, and the other as an entrance. Kahn
completely abandons classical articulation patterns like symmetry or
hierarchy; the building, particularly on its entrance side, is open to
interpretation as a personal act of liberation because its so rigid.
An L-shaped brick shield covers the true body of the building, which is
concealed behind it and provided with structural elements. There are also 2
impressions to be had of the brick wall: from the south west it forms a
closed volume, but from the north end of this section it is clearly discernible
as a wall.
The brick wall as a shield facing the public space and the contrasting with
the quite different rear faade will be taken up again in a later and a much
more design by Kahn: this feature occurs again ion the Yale Art Gallery,
1953, in New Haven.

Kahns architecture is driven by an urge to produce order, as intense as Le

Corbusier. Unique meeting of Kahns and Corbusiers buildings in the Indian
city of Ahmedabad is evident. Considering the rational aspect of Kahns arch
in this way leads to the essential insight that there is an all-embracing order
in Kahns work and that it is an order which can be understood.
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Kimbell Art Museum

Looking northeast to the museum.

The Kimbell Art Museum is situated in the Cultural District of Fort Worth,
Texas, USA. It houses a small but exquisite collection of European, Asian
and Pre-Columbian works, as well as hosting traveling art exhibitions. The
building was designed by Louis Kahn.

History
The Kimbell Art Institute was established as a result of a bequest by Kay
Kimbell, a Texan industrialist and art collector, to establish an art institute
for the people of Texas. On his death in 1964, his widow, Velma Fuller
Kimbell, decided to use the entire Kimbell estate to fund the Institute.

The museum building was commissioned in 1966 and opened in 1972. One
of the masterworks of architect Louis Kahn, the 120,000 square foot (11,000
m) building takes the form of a series of spaces defined by parallel barrel
vaults. Interruptions and irregularities between the main spaces are
experienced as rhythmic variations on a theme. Kahn's excellent treatment
of light is appropriate to the art on display (in contrast to other modern
museums like the Wexner Center), and has the effect of making the post-
tensioned reinforced concrete construction seem light and precise. The
spatial rhythm extends to the exterior water-features on the west side of the
building, and resolves into a number of paths and garden areas on the
grounds.

Although the museum initially housed the Kimbell's art collection, this has
since been expanded, always with a view to acquiring artworks of first class
quality.
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The collection
The museum is not large, but the collection of artwork is wide-ranging and
would not be out of place in any of the world's great art galleries. Works by
Picasso, Caravaggio, El Greco, Rembrandt, Monet, Gainsborough and Rubens
are included among many others in the European collection. There is the
only painting by Adam Elsheimer on public display outside Europe. Two

important paintings by Piet Mondrian mark the modern end of the period
covered.

There is a collection of antiquities from the classical period ranging from

Assyrian to Greek and Roman. The Asian collection includes jars from
Neolithic China and works from Tang, Song and Ming dynasties. Japanese art
is focused on the Momoyama and Edo periods.
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Salk Institute for Biological Studies

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

is an independent, non-profit, scientific
research laboratory located in La Jolla,
California. It was founded in 1960 by
Jonas Salk, M.D., the developer of the
polio vaccine. Among the founding
consultants were Jacob Bronowski and
Francis Crick.

The institute has 56 labs and focuses its research in three areas: Molecular
Biology and Genetics; Neurosciences; and Plant Biology. Research topics
include cancer, diabetes, birth defects,
Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's
disease, and AIDS.

The March of Dimes provided the initial

funding and continues to support the
institute. The campus was designed by
Louis Kahn. Salk had sought to make a
beautiful campus in order to draw the
best researchers in the world. The
original buildings of the Salk Institute
were designated as a historical
landmark in 1991.

The institute currently employs more than 1200 researchers and staff.

History
Salk and Kahn approached the city of San Diego in March 1960 about a gift
of land on the Torrey Pines Mesa and were granted their request after a
referendum in June 1960. Construction began in 1962 and a handful of
researchers moved into the first laboratory in 1963. Additional buildings
housing more laboratories as well as the organizational administrative offices
were constructed in the 1990s, designed by Anshen & Allen.
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Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Coordinates: 23154.29N, 723210.09E

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Established 1961
Type Education and Research Institution
Location Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Campus Urban, 100 acres
Website http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad, also

known as IIMA), was the second Indian Institute of Management to be
established in India after IIM Calcutta. It is considered one of the premier
institutes of management education in India and is widely considered to be
one of the toughest to get in MBA programmes all over the world. Over
170,000 people apply each year for the entrance exam to get into roughly
250 places. IIMA has frequently been rated as one of the best business
schools in Asia.

History

It was established in 1961 as an

autonomous institution by the
Government of India in collaboration
with the Government of Gujarat and
Indian Industry. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai,
a noted scientist and industrialist and
other Ahmedabad based industrialists
such as Kasturbhai Lalbhai played a
major role in the creation of the
Institute.
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Campus

The campus of IIMA is

dominated by the baked
brick style favoured by its
chief architect, the
famous Louis Kahn. All
the structures are designed to
be part of a whole and looks one
integral whole. Other architects who
collaborated on the campus include the
renowned B. V. Doshi and Anant Raje. As of
January 2005, there are 25 dorms in IIMA, each of
which can hold 25-44 students in single-person rooms. Each
dorm has its own distinctive culture and traditions. Work on a new
campus is going on as of 2005. The new campus is just across the road
from the old campus and houses 7 of the 25 dorms and some class rooms
and seminar halls.