LOUIS I KHAN

Born in Estonia in 1901 Louis Isidore Kahn was to become one of the United States' most important architects of the post-war period alongside the Modern masters Mies van der Rohe Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. Although renowned for a number of seminal modern works he came to question many of the precepts of the Modern Movement. In particular he questioned the ability of the International Style of Modernism to house the social spaces required by the latter half of the century. In 1947 Kahn was appointed Professor at Yale University. He was to continue teaching throughout his architectural career influencing a younger generation of architects along the way. His teaching enabled him to further develop his own concepts and to inform his ever-evolving definition of design.He was drawn to investigate monumentality in architecture creating buildings out of heavy solid materials and forms and incorporating vivid plays of light in complete contrast to the lightweight glass and steel structures being created elsewhere by his peers. This monumentality was also imbued with his concern for the ritual of human experience. His career although extending to just over twenty years was a rich and varied one where he continually readdressed the issues of light mass structure monumentality geometry and materials.This monograph follows a predominantly chronological order identifying major themes and examining key works according to these themes. Each building is illustrated with dynamic photographs that convey the spirit of Kahn's work followed by a concept development portfolio that documents inspirations and early plans through to the finished work. An appendix at the back book features a selection of Kahn's own writings; there is also a comprehensive list of projects by Kahn spanning his lifetime and drawn from the Louis I Kahn Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Archives listing over 231 projects of which at least 30 were previously unattributed.

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