Louis Kahn: On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces: The Dominican Motherhouse and a Modern Culture of Space - Softcover

Kahn, Louis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 303778220X ISBN 13: 9783037782200

Publisher: Lars Muller Publishers, 2010

Synopsis

An in-depth study of Louis Kahn's unbuilt masterpiece as an introduction to an evolving paradigm of architectural space.
It was not by chance that Louis Kahn's move into his profession's spotlight coincided with the crisis of modern architecture: representing, as his work increasingly did, those aspects of space which modernism had so ambitiously removed from its program. Kahn's rethinking of modern architecture's paradigm of space belongs to his most important contributions to the metier. In tracing the genesis of the unbuilt project for the Dominican Motherhouse (1965-69), we are given a close-up view of Kahn at work on a few fundamental questions of architectural space: seeking the sources of its meaning in its social, morphological, landscape and contextual dimensions. This rich and multivalent project opens the way to a second section, which sheds new light on several major works in a timely reappraisal of Kahn's work. The result of extensive research, illustrated with unpublished archival material and new analytic drawings, this affordable volume is an indispensible companion to 'Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out.'

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Merrill, Dr.-Ing., is a registered architect in the USA and Germany and a winner of international architectural competitions. Having taught Architectural Design and Theory at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology he is currently Director of Research at the The Institute for Building Typology and Design at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Review:

I was deeply moved by Drawing to Find Out and On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces. Without question, at this point in our history where so much of Kahn“s thinking has been absent, reintroducing it in this way to a new generation is a noble effort. An important contribution to the Kahn legacy. Moshe Safdie, Architect (publisher“s website)

There are many books on Kahn, but Merrill“s are - for my money - not only among the most enjoyable and accessible, but touch upon topics often neglected in the standard Kahn literature. John Cava, architect and educator, Arcade Journal January 2011

Two new books by Michael Merrill are nothing less than a revelation for our understanding of Louis Kahn. T.A. Horton, architect, The Architect“s Newspaper, September 2011

Merrill has enriched the Kahn literature with a significant contribution. Casabella, August 2011

The questions brought up in this book are as pertinent today as they were when Kahn was asking them. Arch Daily

About this edition

• Publisher: Lars Muller Publishers
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 303778220X
• ISBN 13: 9783037782200
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240