LOUIS KHANl He Helped Define Modern

1901-1974:
Architecture

With designs that

combined timeless forms
and modern techniques,
Louis Kahn became
known as one of the
leading American
architects of the 20th
century.

PRESENTED BY:
Synopsis

Louis Isadore Kahn was born in

February 20, 1901 on the Baltic island of
Osel, Estonia. At age of four, His family
emigrated to the United States.

1924, Kahn earned his bachelors degree

from Pennsylvania University.

1935, opened his own firm in

His major works include the Yale University

Art Gallery, the Kimbell Art Museum and
the capitol complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Kahn died in New York City on March 17,

1974.
Early Years and Education

Kahn attended Philadephias Central High

School and the Public Industrial Art School. He
later studied architecture at the University of
Pennsylvania, where he was mentored by the
French-born Architect Paul Cret. Kahn
received his degree in architecture in 1924.
 Career Beginnings
Kahn opened his own architectural practice in 1935.

He created housing for factory workers during World

War II, and later in the 1940s worked on buildings for
labor unions. After the war, Kahn also designed
several private homes in the Pennsylvania suburbs,
working in a modernist style.

1947, Kahn began teaching architecture at Yale

University in New Haven, Connecticut for ten years,
before becoming a professor of architecture at the
University of Pennsylvania.
In 1950-51, Kahn was the architect in residence at
the American Academy in Rome.

He also was able to visit Greece and Egypt. Inspired

by the ancient ruins and Renaissance buildings he
had seen, Kahn would use classical architectures
solid forms and durable materials in his own work,
combining these timeless forms with modern
techniques.
DEVELOPEMENT AS AN ARCHITECT
The back-to-the basics approach
adopted after visiting the ruins of
ancient buildings in Italy, Greece,
and Egypt helped him to develop his
own style of architecture.

Influenced by ancient ruins, Kahn's

style tends to the monumental
and monolithic; his heavy
buildings do not hide their
weight, their materials, or the
way they are assembled.

Louis Kahn's works are considered

as MONUMENTAL beyond
modernism. Famous for his
meticulous built works, his
provocative unbuilt proposals, and
his teaching, Kahn was one of the
most influential architects of the
DEVELOPEMENT AS AN ARCHITECT
He believed that any
architectural problem had an
essential meaning which far
transcended a mere functional
diagram.

A good design is one where

the form, the underlying
meaning, was coherently
expressed through all the
parts. The idealistic position
with regards to spiritual roots
of both social and aesthetic
realms motivated his major
designs in 60s and led him to
clarify a simple set of type
forms based on primary
YALE ART GALLERY (1951-
1953)
The building is a
masterpiece of simplicity
of form and light, a
sleek, four-story box with
elegantly austere glass and
gray concrete cinder-block
walls divided by a central
elevator bank and circular
stairwell. But the building's
blank walls mark a radical
break with the neo-Gothic
context of the university.
Kahn's critics called this a
"brutalist" gesture.
SALK INSTITUTE (1959-1965)
The Salk Institute began as a
collaborative vision shared
between the architect and the
client. The three main clusters
were planned that expresses
the form of the Salk Institute
the laboratory, the meeting
place [the meeting house], and,
the living place [the village].

an open courtyard space in

Kahns design to allow for
breathing. Kahn has reflected
such Islamic architecture
representations into the Salk
Institute, creating a facade to
the sky, which the cosmos is
brought into the courtyard that
acts as the infinite void to
represent forever.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY,DHAKA (1962-1974)

Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National

Assembly Building) in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, is perhaps the most
important building designed by
Kahn. It is the centrepiece of the
national capital complex that
includes hostels, dining halls, and
a hospital

an extraordinary example of
modern architecture being
transcribed as a part of Bengali
vernacular architecture.

The geometric shapes found on

the different faces of the faade
add a dramatic impact to the
overall composition of the
building. The geometric shapes
are abstracted forms found in
traditional Bangali culture that are
meant to create a marriage of old
 For Kahn, light was an
important aspect in the
design of a building, not just
as a way to illuminate a
space, but rather
conceptualizing light as a
creator of space.
PHILIP EXETER LIBRARY (1965-1972)
The largest secondary
school library in the world.

In 1997, the Library was

awarded the American
Institute of Architects
Twenty-five Year Award.

The Academy was very

particular in knowing the
kind of building they
wanted: a brick exterior to
match the Georgian
buildings of the school and
an interior with the ideal
environment for study.

Kahn's sympathetic use of

brick and his concerns for
natural light met these
specific principles that the
Academy had in mind for
the library, and thus the
design fell in his hands.
 Kahn was very interested in the look and feel
of the materials he used. He used brick and
concrete in new and special ways. Kahn also
paid careful attention to the use of sunlight. He
liked natural light to enter his buildings through
interesting kinds of windows and openings.
Kahns work can also be identified by his
creative use of geometric shapes. Many of his
buildings use squares, circles and three sided
shapes called triangles.

Books:
Louis I. Kahn, 1901-1974,
Louis Kahn: Essential Texts

Movie:
A Documentary movie made by his son, Nathaniel
Khan
My Architect (2003)

Quotes:
A great building must begin with the
unmeasurable, must go through measurable
means when it is being designed and in the end
must be unmeasurable.

Design is not making beauty, beauty emerges