Louis Kahn: Conversations with Students

by Louis I. Kahn, Princeton Arch

Louis Kahn (1901-74) is one of the most renowned practitioners of international modernism, on a par with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe in the extent of his influence on subsequent generations of architects. Kahn sought the spiritual in his powerful forms, and encouraged his students to seek the essential nature of architecture. His Philadelphia-based practice was responsible for such masterpieces as the Richards Medical Research building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Yale Art Gallery extension in New Haven, Connecticut; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas; the government complex at Dhaka, Bangladesh; and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
This title, in the same format as our highly successful Rem Conversations with Students , contains a little-known essay by Kahn on his sources of inspiration, an interview with the architect on his working methods and his vision for the future of the profession, and writings on Kahn by Michael Bell and Lars Lerup, contributors to our title Stanley Saitowitz.
Louis Conversations with Students is the latest title in the series from the Rice University School of Architecture.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Design

112 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

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

[Michael Sapunor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't great. Maybe it's my expectations for the book - some talk of the fundamentals of architecture, or theorizing on what makes a "good" work of the art. There was significantly less of that than I had hoped for, replaced by Kahn (rightfully) praising his own work. In one section, he and his students decide that a monk brought into consult on a monastery project did not have enough knowledge of what said monastery required architecturally. I also was not a fan of the free verse formatting of the first section. Further among these complaints is also the fact that my edition was riddled with typos, low quality images, bleeding or faded ink, etc.
In Kahn's defence, the best passages from the book come from two bits, one being his continued discussion about the Pantheon and its greatness, the other his discussion of a community he was planning in India. Both revealed an artist discussing his craft, more so than any other part of this book.

[Negar Ghadimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could think what I would do, other than architecture, it would be to write the new fairy tale, because from the fairy tale came the airplane, and the locomotive, and the wonderful instruments of our minds … It all came from the wonder.
——————————————————
Nature does not choose, it simply unravels its laws and everything is designed by the circumstantial interplay where man chooses. Art involves choice and everything that man does, he does in art.
In everything that nature makes, nature records how it was made. In the rock is a record of the rock. In man is a record of how he was made. When we are conscious of this, we have a sense of the laws of the universe.
——————————————————
Science finds what is already there, but the artist makes that which is not there.
——————————————————
A building is a world within a world. Buildings that personify places of worship, or of home, or of other institutions of man must be true to their nature. It is this thought which must live; if it dies, architecture is dead.
——————————————————
The painter can make doorways smaller than people, he can make skies black in the daytime, he can make birds that can’t fly, he can make dogs that can’t run, because he is a painter. He can paint red where he sees blue. The sculptor can place square wheels on a cannon to express the futility of war. An architect must use round wheels, and he must make his doorways bigger than people. But architects must learn that they have other rights; their own rights. To learn this, to understand this, is giving the man the tools for making the incredible. That which nature cannot make.
——————————————————
If you know what a thing will look like fifty years from now, you can do it now.
——————————————————
Form has no shape or dimension. Form merely has a nature and a characteristic. It has inseparable parts. If you take one part away, form is gone. That’s form. Design is a translation of this into being. Form has existence, but it doesn’t have presence, and design is towards presence.

[Nabilla Zammali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This "book" is a must read for college professors who most of the time forget what architecture is really about. Kahn's idea around juries is almost enlightening. Juries are sometimes (depending on the school, the student, whatever...) is an event for humiliating students sometimes. (#francophone education to say the least). Kahn says " I think a student shouldn't stand there shaking like a leaf, before people he doesn't know, and say his piece, after he has worked all night, and maybe two nights ahead. [...] It should just be a place where you know you are not going to be called down". You tell'em Lou !

[Mimona Masarwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pure gold for any architect!! (this is just how much I have learned from this book!)
In the third part, Kahn explains the idea of library\ class\ and seminar room, and how they fit in the concept of where they should be placed and designed.
He has a very clear idea of the importance of teaching. it should be relaxed not forced into people.


That was magnificent
It really inspiring to read how Kahn actually struggled throughout his career to finding answers to his questions, there is no doubt he knew what he was searching for but he worked hard to find it! (just recently read that he may have been able to create his masterpieces because he was a single-minded person.)

I am still overwhelmed by how things really work in the industry. a lot of things are involved and we consider what the law allows and what does not. There is a lot to absorb and learn while you plan a project.

Today architecture still has almost the same trouble sides as it had in the past. A lot of our works (architects) sadly are repetitive to avoid wasting time and that's a crime in architecture I think!

But at least we can look at Kahn's works, he worked in housing and other public buildings.
This teaches us that we- as individuals - should seek that degree we should aspirin to reach higher architecture pieces.

Definitely inspiring!
I love how he put his thinking into words. today, we young architects can read them and learn something from him.
Obviously, that's only how I understood parts f the book. I may be wrong about it. bu,t at least for now I learned a lot! I hope that in the coming years after I have more practice in the field I will understand the deeper meaning of Kahn's words and designs.

[Mirian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself quite moved and motivated by this book. Kahn helps oneself understand architecture through various lenses by underlining the need to learn from the other arts, the importance of finding the nature of a place, and the value to express oneself. This is a book I know I can carry around as a bible as I can always go back and re-read Kahn's best way of satisfying one’s thoughts in a very poetic manner.

[David Gowty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kahn Amazing. The essays at the back, very strange.

[Sai Tejas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read recently. Utterly inspiring, it gives a new dynamic to understanding Kahn's buildings; and, on how to design our own.

[Sümeyye Yıldız · Rating 4 out of 5]

Problem biçimi tasarlar, binanın iradesi, kurumun doğası, 'El',..

[Sude · Rating 5 out of 5]

merak

[ej · Rating 3 out of 5]

good idk why there’s an essay abt his hand tho

[Amir · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب کوتاهی هست که میه به سرعت خوند. یک مقدمه و موخره کم ارزش و بی ارزش داره. اصل حرف سخنرانی و گفتگوی کان با دانشجویان هست که مطالب عمیقی داره.
و نشون دهنده ی شیوه طراحی کان به عنوان یک ماهیت گرا هست و نه سنت گرا.
کان مثل یک کاشف به پدیده ها نگاه میکنه و خصوصا با برنامه ریزی مخالفت آشکار داره. ولی باید توجه کنیم پایگه و نظرگاه او مدرن هست. پناه بردن او به هندسه بیشتر به کلاسیسیم نزدیک است تا بومگرایی و زمینه گرایی.

[Carolina Helena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mais um livro de Arquitectura (parece que isto agora é a minha vida). É um livro interessante, mas também não me levantou do sofá, se é que me percebem. Talvez seja por ter lido a tradução brasileira, talvez seja por achar a organização do livro um tanto ou quanto confusa. A verdade é que apesar de achar os seus propósitos interessantes - é sempre excelente ler as versões escritas de conferências para alunos de Arquitectura - esta não me agradou particularmente.
Tem contudo algumas chamadas de atenção interessantes, que fazem pensar nestas questões da poética vs. lógica do programa de Arquitectura que valem a pena a leitura (sou poucas páginas, é coisa para ser bem rápida).

[HelenMarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como estudiante de arquitectura, creo que es un libro muy bueno para inspirarte y olvidarte de lo que dicta un programa, y ver la arquitectura como algo que respira, se transforma y responde a una naturaleza. 100% recomendado.

[13th · Rating 4 out of 5]

[ ... In Thai translated version by Tonkao Panin ... ]