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Louis I Kahn

Louis I Kahn

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(Hardcover)-The considerable beauty of Robert McCarter's book about Louis Kahn, one of the titans of modern archtitecture, is akin to a Kahn building: squarish, monumental, monkish yet passionate and cunningly designed. The layout is exemplary, the straightforward chronological account of Kahn's career interspersed with conceptual histories of each of his important buildings, from the Yale Art Gallery to the Salk Institute to the National Capital of Bangladesh. The light splashes off the bright, thick pages in a way that would delight the master, and he would approve the clarity of the text and illustrations. Though the ample passages of Kahn's own prose are more poetical than McCarter's, in his soberly scholarly way, he's intellectually lively too, alert to Kahn's influences, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Buckminster Fuller, Barnett Newman to Noguchi. Fascinatingly, he traces the conceptual development of each major project--Kahn's masterpiece, La Jolla's Salk Institute, derives from the Acropolis plinth, Diocletian's palace, Hadrian's villa, the Alhambra, medieval monasteries, Renaissance churches, and Piranesi's plan to rebuild the ancient Roman Campus Martius (which also inspired the Bangladesh masterpiece). With exhilarated admiration, McCarter explains how Kahn coated the Salk project's concrete forms with polyurethane for perfect smoothness, added travertine stone and pozzuolana in the old Roman fashion to fashion textures and warm the tones, and fulfilled the master's ambition to fufill the material's potential: "Concrete really wants to be granite, but it can't manage." Wonderfully, McCarter provides computer renditions of masterpieces Kahn never created, including the stunning Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem, which was to echo Wright's Johnson Wax Building. He gives a sense of Kahn the man, in his lifelong lover's quarrel with Wright and his hatred of the automobile. For a still deeper portrait, see Kahn's son's brilliant documentary My Architect . No serious student of modern architecture can afford to be wi
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User Reviews for Louis I Kahn

Overall Rating: Star FullStar FullStar FullStar FullStar Half ( 9 reviews )
  1. Star FullStar FullStar FullStar FullStar Empty Posted: Jul 27 2009

    Containing literally hundreds of images of Louis Kahn's architectural work, in all phases of development, from mere concepts to finished works, //Louis I. Kahn// by Robert McCarter is not only visually stunning, but also thorough in its overview of this often-overlooked architect's body of work. Though some of the body of the book is dedicated to biographical information about the architect, this is not done in a drab fashion and is, in fact, only used as a blueprint upon which the more detailed and true design of Kahn and his work are laid. Showing the chronological progression of Kahn's work, one can see the thought processes and evolution of this most influential architect. McCarter, having drawn upon his polished experience in architectural writing (of which he has much, having contributed writing to numerous architect biographies), has created an intriguing picture of Kahn. Without missing a detail, McCarter has still managed to make a not-overly-intimidating work that shows off the oft-forgotten innovations in architecture that were contributed by Louis Kahn.

  2. Star FullStar FullStar FullStar FullStar Full Posted: Jun 20 2009

    A chronologically informative as well as a descriptive book on architectural works of the great and most definitely the greatest architect of the second half of the 20th century none other than Louis I. Kahn. Not only are the works with their "unmeasurable" qualities profusely spread throughout the pages in drawings and photographic images so are the biographical glimpses into the inner world of the architect. Fortunately, Louis I. Kahn gives us the true "sense" of the essence of architecture and still remains a much needed beacon especially in the living age of architecture, which has unfortunately, turned mostly into a vogue, pastiche and origami. This book is for anyone who is curious about the Art of Architecture with its built examples and its poet.

  3. Star FullStar FullStar FullStar FullStar Full Posted: Feb 8 2008

    great graphic and textual documentation, you can get a great insight of kahn's work: ground-plans, sections, sketches, drawings, photographs, including good explanations. a must-have

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Product Specs for Louis I Kahn

Author: Robert McCarter
Number Of Pages: 512
Category: Hardcover
Brand: Phaidon Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 720
Label: Phaidon Press
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
Product Group: Book
Publication Date: 2005-06-16
See item at: Amazon: $53.55

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