Louis Kahn Drawing to Find Out: The Dominican Motherhouse and the Patient Search for Architecture

by Michael Merrill

DAM Book Prize, Most Beautiful Books of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Like few others, Louis Kahn cultivated the craft of drawing as a means to architecture. His personal design drawings - seen either as a method of discovery or for themselves - are unique in the twentieth century. Over two hundred - mostly unpublished - drawings by Kahn and his associates are woven together with a lively and informed commentary into an intimate biography of an architectural idea. Unfolding around the iconic project for the Dominican Motherhouse (1965 - 69) the drawings form a narrative which not only reveals the richness and hidden dimensions of this unbuilt masterpiece, but provides compelling insights into Louis Kahn's mature culture of designing. Kahn - long considered an architects' architect" - emerges as a vivid and instructive guide, provoking reflection on questions which continue to remain on how works are conceived, on how they might be perceived, on how they become part of human experience. Fascinating not only in their beauty, the drawings open a new and stimulating perspective on one of the past century's great architects.

'While drawing, I'm always waiting for something to happen. I don't want it to happen too quickly, though.' - Louis Kahn

Genres: Architecture

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 28, 2010

Reviews

[Mariana Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is interesting to understand how drawing was used in the various phases of the project process discussed in the book.

[jw468 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional! Michael Merrill traces the development of the design for the Dominican Motherhouse from the initial letter sent to Kahn's office to the final letter sent to the office formally ending design work. The primary focus of this publication is the many drawings and sketches, which are printed in color; however, there are also facsimiles of important documents connected to certain points in the design process.