Louis Kahn Overview

The mystically inspired Louis Kahn was born in Estonia and raised in the United States. He acquired a thorough grounding in the Beaux-Art school of architecture and worked through the 1920s and 1930s first as a draughtsman and then as a... [more]

The mystically inspired Louis Kahn was born in Estonia and raised in the United States. He acquired a thorough grounding in the Beaux-Art school of architecture and worked through the 1920s and 1930s first as a draughtsman and then as a head designer. Kahn infused his buildings with monumentalism, richness, sweeping ideals, and Jungian archetypes. His guiding light was always the question: "What does the building want to be?" His design for the Salk Institute (1959-1965) realigned architecture with a seemingly eternal ideal. Kahn employed concepts of symmetry and hierarchical massing, concentrating on the solidity of materials. One of Kahn's final designs, the dramatic Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, is the epitome of a "functionally effective" structure. It was completed in 1972 and features an exterior that is almost magically integrated with the environment, and an interior which combines natural and artificial light to create the best space for the art works. Kahn's architecture is notable for its simple, platonic forms and compositions. [show less]