Louis Kahn: Drawing, Thinking, Architecture Architectural Representation, Work Processes and Designerly Knowledge
Final Report Abstract
Louis Kahn (1901-74) has long been recognized as one of the most significant architects of the last century and awareness of his lasting relevance continues to grow. Until now, though, the fame of Kahn´s buildings has eclipsed an equally profound part of his work: the exceptional culture of drawing and representation from which those buildings emerged. This project, which enabled four years of unprecedented collaborative research in the Louis Kahn Collection and other archives, stems from the recognition that for architects and students of architecture, Kahn´s significance is not only in the buildings he built, but in how he designed them. The results of the research are soon to be published in large and comprehensive volume as the first major study of Kahn´s architecture through his drawings and those of his office. Unlike most previous studies, which have focused on the built work and theory and considered the drawings as illustrations of these, this project has focused on Kahn´s drawings as primary sources of insight into his architecture and creative imagination. The study is significant not only for closing crucial gaps in our knowledge of this important architect and for making a timely contribution to the current debate on representation in architecture; but for demonstrating how architects might develop a métier-immanent body of knowledge around their discipline´s essential tools and methods. The resulting book will be a richly illustrated series of essays, graphic essays, and galleries written and composed by an expert group of architects and scholars. Offering a variety of incisive and engaging approaches into Kahn´s work, its sections are ordered to reveal the processes in which Kahn used drawings to learn, explore, conjecture, assert, convince, and collaborate. A wide spectrum of themes, media, and drawing types are explored, ranging from student studies, travel drawings, notebooks, and concept sketches to orthographic working drawings, presentations, and diagrams. Hundreds of – for the most part, previously unpublished – drawings have been selected for their ability to reveal fundamental aspects of Kahn´s work and method and for their capacity to spark further reflection and invention. In order to do justice to the drawings´ compelling detail and striking beauty they have been newly scanned for reproduction in large-format facsimile form. By making a rich and largely unpublished trove of archival material available to students, architects, and researchers; by posing fundamental questions regarding drawing and the creative act; and by opening new inroads to interpretation of Kahn´s work, the result of the research promises to be a lasting standard work on this architect as well as a timely amd thought-provoking source on the role of drawing and representation in architecture.
Publications
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Louis Kahn - The Importance of a Drawing, Lars Müller Publishers, Zürich. 511 pages
Michael Merrill; Kahn, Louis
