Louis I. Kahn: The Making of a Room
Early Work
"The Plan - A society of rooms is a place good to live work learn"
"The Room is the place of the mind"
"In a small room one does not say what one would in a large room"
"A room with only one other person could be generative. The vectors of each meet"
By treating each entrance, each passageway, and each individual room
as a potential meeting place, Louis Kahn's designs allow for the possibilities
of unexpected encounters at the points where architecture and
inhabitants meet. For Kahn, the common experience of a room united its
users even if they were strangers with no other link than shared space.
Kahn wanted to create spaces that would preserve the intimate interaction
only possible “in a room with only one other person.” In his 1971
speech, he explained this distinction: “It is different when there is more
than just another person. Then, in this little room, the singularity of
each is so sensitive that the vectors do not resolve. The meeting
becomes a performance instead of an event with everyone saying his
lines, saying what has been said many times before.” But when only
two people are present, the elements of design, the architect’s work,
and the inhabitants might all come together, their vectors meeting to
create one unique moment that makes up its own particular room.
Click on the thumbnail images below for a larger view.
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Temple Beth-El Synagogue
Chappaqua, New York
1966-72
Section
Charcoal on tracing paper
Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
030.I.A.750.90
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Kansas City Office Building
Kansas City, Missouri
1966-73, unbuilt
Section of Upper Floors Including Health Club and Observation Deck
Charcoal on tracing paper
Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
030.I.A.725.175
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Sher-e-bangla Nagar, Capital of Bangladesh
Dhaka
1962-83
Partial Section and Elevation of Ministers' Hostels Showing Veranda
Pencil and Negro pencil on tracing paper
Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
030.I.A.650.551
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Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, California
1959-65, laboratory built
Perspective from Meeting House Veranda
Charcoal on tracing paper
Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
030.I.A.540.179
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"A room is not a room without natural light" |
