Louis Kahn: Modelling Space – The Model as Tool of the Architectural Imagination

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Michael Merrill
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 428300927

Today, Louis I. Kahn (1901-74) is widely recognized as one of the most important architects of the past century. Kahn´s buildings, theory and teaching have influenced at least four generations of architects in ways both profound and myriad, and awareness of his long-term relevance continues to grow. This project proposes to research and analyze a significant body of mostly undocumented architectural models and model photos in Kahn´s archive and in other archives. Its goals in doing so are threefold: 1.) To attain a deeper understanding Kahn´s architecture. 2.) To trace - in the name of Design Research - the exemplary design processes that resulted in that architecture. 3.) To contribute research on the model as a tool of the architectural imagination. Preliminary research has revealed how Kahn´s models - which were conceived and used as design tools - were crucial to the development of his mature work and to his evolving conception of architectural space. The project is to build upon the knowledge, insights, and archival findings gained through the preceding four-year DFG project, "Louis Kahn: Drawing, Thinking, Architecture". That project - which enabled the research and analysis of thousands of drawings housed in Kahn´s archive - is the first systematic and critical study of Kahn´s design process through his drawings and those of his office. (See the resulting publication: "Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing", Lars Müller Publis0hers, 2021, 512 pages, 919 illustrations.) While an in-depth study of Kahn´s use of architectural models would be in itself of considerable value, when regarded together with the foregoing study of Kahn´s uses of drawing, it will add up to a uniquely comprehensive survey of a single master architect´s culture of designing. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on Kahn´s built work and considered his models only insofar as they illuminate those buildings, the proposed study seeks to understand Kahn´s use of this design tool as an independent source of insight into his designerly intelligence and work. At the same time, the study sees itself as a attempt to rectify the general paucity of research on the architectural model in the design process. The study of Kahn´s models is significant for several reasons: it will not only close a gap in the scholarship on this important architect and make a contribution to the ongoing discourse on representation in architecture; it represents original and primary research toward the development of the systematic bases of architectural design as an academic discipline; systematic in the sense of transparent and verifiable and thus independently arguable. The research is to demonstrate how designing architects can develop a métier-immanent body of knowledge around the tools of the discipline´s cognitive force and agency.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Meinrad Morger