Louis Kahn: Essential Texts

by Louis I. Kahn, Robert Twombly (Editor)

A thoughtful selection of the celebrated architect's speeches and writings. This unique anthology draws from Louis Kahn's speeches, essays, and interviews, some never previously published, to capture the evolution and central tenets of the influential American architect's thinking from his early work of the 1940s to his death in 1974. Professor Twombly's introduction and headnotes offer incisive commentary on the texts. 20 photographs

Genres: Architecture, Art, Design, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2003

About the author

Louis Isadore Kahn, born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky, was an American architect, 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.

Reviews

[Emre Senoglu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book made in order to collect Kahn's lectures and essays together, the work tries to demystify the words of a man that deems architecture to be unmeasurable. A great source for finding Kahn’s unorganized wisdom in one place however a difficult read as a book.

Kahn himself is indeed a master of buildings. His ideas about structure, order, institutions and the role of man are well thought and stand the test of time. What’s more, these concepts are indeed evident in the buildings he has built. In my opinion though, he is not a scholar and this is evident in the way he speaks. He speaks like an artist trying to explain his painting to an audience that has perhaps never seen a true painting before. Either there is a miscalculation on adressing his audience, or this is simply because he expects everyone to be up to date with his conceps as he himself is.

Kahn also has a lot of wisdom - not just for architecture but in general for a life well lived. And in his own way of telling things, these nuggets of wisdom pop out in the most unexpected passages through the text.

Unfortunately, the format of transcribing lectures to a script doesn’t work too well. In some speeches sentences are short and disconnected from one another. Kahn’s chaotic way of jumping from one subject to another makes it a very slow and challenging read. There's a lot of repetition since Kahn uses similar examples to explain his works. Quite often the work he explains is same as well. The lecture format becomes very segmented as there is no overall narrative to the whole text.

There are very few photos and diagrams in the book: they are unfortunately not referenced specifically throughout the text, and almost all of them are placed in the middle of the book. Especially towards the end of the book, Kahn uses a lot of visual references, and not having any images to refer to makes it extra difficult to grasp the concepts he’s explaining.

[U Jin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself picking up this book from time to time because of how moved I would feel every time I read it. This book is not just a source of experiential knowledge for me, but it also peels away the fabric and purpose of built Architecture to Kahn. The compilation of transcripts with students and clients told a humble story of the American architect: his pilgrimage-like journey of him finding presence and innate beginnings in his works. One particular project that stood out to me was the National Assembly in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was a privilege for me to read personal accounts by him with regards to his design methodology and thought process behind what is now regarded as one of the most important buildings in Bangladesh.

[Kamil Muhammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having read a number of other books on Lou, I have to say this is probably the best on to read because beyond the ideas about the near-mythical play on light and shadow and his austere aesthetic, there are anecdotal stories that grounded him back to earth that gives him back his humanity in his endeavour.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compilation of writings and transcribed lectures of one of America's greatest architects. Kahn is an interesting figure to me because he is widely respected as an architect despite three facts: his family and home life was completely messed up, he didn't succeed to actually build many projects in his lifetime, and his attitude toward building had a mystical tone and spiritual nature. I found it fascinating to get a first-hand understanding of his work and his practice in his own words.

[Regan Ziobro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I dont know what I was expecting, but this book is literally recorded transcripts of Kahn's lectures. While I think Kahn is brilliant and I appreciate reading his thoughts directly I was left wanting more dialogue with the editor. Kahn brings up several thought provoking ideas and throws out some great quotes for the reader to dissolve on their own. Perhaps this would be a good book for a classroom in which a discussion on Kahn as a man, his ideas, buildings and theological predecessors / descendants would follow.

[Sjors Timmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read.
No better place to start than with the words of the man himself

[Jeffrey Ottem]

Keeping it whatever the brick wants.