Yale School of Architecture

Order and Form Author(s): Louis I. Kahn Source: Perspecta, Vol. 3 (1955), pp. 46-63 Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566835 . Accessed: 25/01/2011 11:50
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Orderis in Design is form-making order Form outof a system construction of emerges Growth a construction is In order is creative force In design is themeans--where withwhat when withhowmuch

Thenatureof spacereflectswhatit wantsto be a Is the auditorium Stradavarius or is it an ear a Is the auditorium creativeinstrument keyedto Bachor Bartok played by the conductor hall or is it a convention In the natureof spaceis the spiritand the will to exist a certainway Design mustcloselyfollow thatwill a Therefore stripepaintedhorseis not a zebra. Before a railroadstationis a building it wantsto be a street it growsoutof theneedsof street out of the orderof movement A meetingof contours englazed. Thruthe nature-why Thruthe order-what Thrudesign-how A Formemergesfrom the structural elementsinherent theform. in A domeis not conceived whenquestions arise howto build it. Nervigrowsan arch Fullergrowsa dome Mozart's are compositions designs Theyare exercisesof order-intuitive moredesigns Design encourages derivetheirimageryfrom order Designs Imageryis the memory--theForm Style is an adoptedorder Thesameorder createdthe elephantandcreatedman Theyare differentdesigns Begunfrom differentaspirations Shapedfrom differentcircumstances Order does not imply Beauty Thesameordercreatedthe dwarfandAdonis is not makingBeauty Design Beautyemergesfrom selection
affinities

integration
love

Art is a form makinglife in order-psychic

Order supports integration Fromwhatthe space wantsto be the unfamiliarmay be revealedto the architect. Fromorderhe will derive creativeforce and powerof self criticism to give form to this unfamiliar. Beautywill evolve Louis 1. Kahn
Night photo by Lionel Freedman. Color photo by John Ebstel.

Orderis intangible It is a levelof creative consciousness in higher level forever becoming Thehigher order more the in the diversity design