Louis Kahn Architecture Views

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The few buildings that Louis Kahn did realise were so remarkable that they established him as one of the most important figures in 20th century architecture, whose influence is compared to that of Le Corbusier and Mies Van Der Rohe, yet whose work offered new intellectual possibilities to the younger generation of architects searching for alternatives to their hegemonic International Style. Convinced that contemporary architects could – and should – produce buildings which were as monumental and as spiritually inspiring as the ancient ruins of Greece and Egypt, Kahn devoted his career to the uncompromising pursuit of formal perfection and emotional expression.

Bereft of another major commission in the US, even after Kimbell, Kahn poured his energy into his most demanding projects, the 1962-74 Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the monumental Capital Complex in Dhaka, which he began in 1962 but which was completed after his death. It was in Dhaka that Kahn realised his dream of building a city of the future. The project was intensely problematic, construction was not only disrupted by political unrest and, eventually a war for independence in Bangladesh, but bedevilled by the logistical difficulties of building in a city prey to floods and storms. The result is a magical sequence of buildings that appear to float above the surrounding water in vernacular red brick brilliantly constructed by local craftsmen. In a Muslim city prey to painful poverty and natural disaster, Louis Kahn achieved his goal of creating a monumental modern architecture, which is at once spiritually uplifting and humane.

Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky) (February 20, 1901 or 1902 – March 17, 1974) was a world-renowned American architect of Estonian Jewish origin,[1] based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. While continuing his private practice, he served as a design critic and professor of architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. From 1957 until his death, he was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. 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.

Louis Kahn's work infused the International style with a fastidious, highly personal taste, a poetry of light. His few projects reflect his deep personal involvement with each. Isamu Noguchi called him a philosopher among architects. He was known for his ability to create monumental architecture that responded to the human scale. He was also concerned with creating strong formal distinctions between served spaces and servant spaces. What he meant by servant spaces was not spaces for servants, but rather spaces that serve other spaces, such as stairwells, corridors, restrooms, or any other back-of-house function like storage space or mechanical rooms. His palette of materials tended toward heavily textured brick and bare concrete, the textures often reinforced by juxtaposition to highly refined surfaces such as travertine marble.