Salk Institute, Louis Kahn

Architect: Louis Kahn

Location: La Jolla, California

Client: Jonas SalkProject Year: 1959-1965Photographs: Depending on the photgraph: Liao Yusheng, or on Flickr: Creative Commons: dreamschung, chipm2008, Steven W. Moore, or drawings onGreatBuildings.com References: Courtesy of Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Design Museum

Perched above the roiling surf in La Jolla, California, a San Diego resort community, theSalk Institute for Biological Studies occupies its rocky cliff like a modern-day citadel. Completed in 1965 by the innovative American architect Louis I. Kahn, the nonprofit research center (specializing in genetics, neuroscience, and molecular and plant biology) interweaves private and public spaces with a strikingly formal, inward-looking plan that echoes the format of a medieval cloister. Composed of strong-willed yet sensuous materials—travertine and reinforced concrete—it possesses a hushed dignity that encourages contemplation.

Two six-story laboratory buildings form the north and south boundaries of the complex. Each shelters an inner row of angular semidetached office structures that face each other across a travertine courtyard. Bisecting it all is a channel of water that seems to pour into the Pacific below. The buildings, fashioned of concrete accented with teak, focus one’s gaze on the horizon so “you are one with the ocean,” observes admirer Jim Olson, a partner in the Seattle firm Olson Kundig Architects.

According to lore, when Jonas Salk, the physician who developed the polio vaccine, visited Kahn in 1959 merely to solicit his advice on hiring an architect, he was so impressed by their conversation about fusing art and science that he looked no further. Together the men would create a modern monument with a subtle handmade quality, evidenced by traces of graining left by the plywood forms that shaped the concrete, a textural leitmotif of Kahn’s radical but elegant oeuvre, from the Yale University Art Gallery (1953) to the Phillips Exeter Academy Library (1972) to the Kimbell Art Museum (1972).

Critic Vincent Scully once praised the “primitive” force of Kahn’s architecture, and at the Salk Institute that characteristic is matched by a blend of rigor and serenity ideally suited to scientific research. Tod Williams, who designed the nearby Neurosciences Institute with his partner and wife, Billie Tsien, calls the La Jolla landmark “timeless,” adding, “it’s a powerful and gracious place of discourse, reflection, and discovery.”

Progressing from the International Style, Louis Kahn believed buildings should be monumental and spiritually inspiring.

In his design for the Salk Institute, he was successful in creating the formal perfection and emotional expressions that he so vigourously tried to achieve. Kahn was commissioned to design the Salk Institute in 1959 by Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine. Salk’s vision included a facility with an inspiring environment for scientific research, and Kahn’s design decisions created a functional institutional building that also became an architectural masterpiece.

More on the Salk Institute after the break.

Before designing, Kahn referenced and studied monasteries in order to build his concept of an “intellectual retreat.” With a prime location in La Jolla, California and bordering the Pacific Ocean, Kahn took advantage of the site’s tranquil surroundings and abundant natural light. His scheme became a symmetrical plan, two structures mirroring each other separated by an open plaza.

The buildings each have six stories, with the first three floors containing laboratories and the last three with utilities. These spaces are connected to protruding towers that contain spaces for individual studies linked with bridges. The towers at the east end of the buildings contain heating, ventilating, and other support systems while at the west end the towers are six floors of offices that all face the Pacific ocean, providing a warm tranquil setting for concentration. The separation of the laboratories and the individual study spaces was intended by Kahn, establishing the different activities. Due to zoning codes, the first two stories had to be underground, sinking the laboratories in the courtyard.

In order for these spaces to receive ample sunlight, Kahn designed a series of lightwells on both sides of each building that were 40 feet long and 25 feet wide. The laboratories above ground are also well-lit spaces with large glass panes for their exterior walls. The materials that make up the Salk Institute consist of concrete, teak, lead, glass, and steel.

The concrete was poured using a technique studied in Roman architecture. Once theconcrete was set, he allowed no further finishing touches in order to attain a warm glow in the concrete. Mechanical spaces are hidden within the building, separating the “served” and “servant” spaces, as Kahn refered to them. The open plaza is made of travertine marble, and a single narrow strip of water runs down the center, linking the buildings to the vast Pacific Ocean. 

A person’s view is then directed towards nature, reminding people of their scale compared to that of the ocean. The strip of water also enhances the symmetry intended in the plan and creates a sense of monumentality in the otherwise bare open plaza that is meant to be in the words of Luis Barragan “a facade to the sky.” Complete with this dignified water element, the Salk Institute is simply put in Kahn’s words, “the thoughtful making of space” revealed through such simplicity and elegance that it has since its completion in 1965 been regarded as of the most inspirational works of architecture in the world.

Indian Institute of Management, Louis Kahn

Architect: Louis Kahn
Location: Ahmedabad, India
Project Year: 1962-1974

References: greatbuildings.com, IIM-Ahmedabad Blog, wikiarquitectura.co

While Louis Kahn was designing the National Assembly Building in Bangladesh in 1962, he was approached by an admiring Indian architect, Balkrishna Doshi, to design the 60 acre campus for the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India.  Much like his project in Bangladesh, he was faced with a culture enamored in tradition, as well as an arid desert climate.  For Kahn, the design of the institute was more than just efficient spatial planning of the classrooms; he began to question the design of the educational infrastructure where the classroom was just the first phase of learning for the students. In 1961, a visionary group of industrialists collaborated with the Harvard Business School to create a new school focused on the advancement of specific professions to advance India’s industry.  Their main focus was to create a new school of thought that incorporated a more western-style of teaching that allowed students to participate in class discussions and debates in comparison to the traditional style where students sat in lecture throughout the day.

It was Balkrishna Doshi that believed Louis Kahn would be able to envision a new, modern school for India’s best and brightest.  Kahn’s inquisitive and even critical view at the methods of the educational system influenced his design to no longer singularly focus on the classroom as the center of academic thought.  The classroom was just the formal setting for the beginning of learning; the hallways and Kahn’s Plaza became new centers for learning.  The conceptual rethinking of the educational practice transformed a school into an institute, where education was a collaborative, cross-disciplinary effort occurring in and out of the classroom.

In much of the same ways that he approached the design of the National Assembly Building in Bangladesh, he implemented the same techniques in the Indian Institute of Management such that he incorporated local materials (brick and concrete) and large geometrical façade extractions as homage to Indian vernacular architecture.  It was Kahn’s method of blending modern architecture and Indian tradition into an architecture that could only be applied for the Indian Institute of Management.  The large façade omissions are abstracted patterns found within the Indian culture that were positioned to act as light wells and a natural cooling system protecting the interior from India’s harsh desert climate.  Even though the porous, geometric façade acts as filters for sunlight and ventilation, the porosity allowed for the creation of new spaces of gathering for the students and faculty to come together.

Together, Kahn’s rethinking of the traditional principles of India’s educational system along with a group of ambitious industrialists helped create one of the most sought after, influential, and elite business schools in the world.  Unfortunately, Kahn was unable to see his design come to fruition as he had died in New York City in 1974 before the project was finished.  However, there is no question whether or not his design had completely transformed the way in which modern architecture establishes itself in one’s culture.

First Unitarian Church of Rochester, Louis Kahn

Architect: Louis Kahn
Loaction: Rochester, New York, USA
Project Year: 1959-1969

References: greatbuildings.com, rochesterunitarian.org, archinform.net

Louis Kahn was known for his infusion of culture and creating a sense of place within modern architecture.  Although it may not be as well known as some of his other projects around the world, the First Unitarian Church in Rochester, New York is one of Kahn’s most impressive works.  Completed slightly after the Salk Institute in 1967, it replaced their previous church that was designed by Richard Upjohn, founder of the AIA, which was demolished during urban redevelopment in Rochester.

 The First Unitarian Church combines modern design aesthetic with traditional Unitarian values that promotes community and unites everyone at the heart of the building, the sanctuary. When Kahn initially started meeting with members of the congregation, the pastor had described the Unitarian Church and its aspirations of rationalism, free will and thought, and the coexistence of science and religion. These meetings resulted in Kahn beginning to sketch on a chalkboard where he conceptually organized the church’s supporting spaces around a central question mark.  In his eyes, the question mark symbolized the sanctuary where all the questioning would occur. It is a critical look at religion and the journey that one must embark on to find truth; questioning as the natural process.

In the spaces around the sanctuary Kahn situated classrooms for the school; these classrooms were what Kahn considered to be the origin from which the questions of Unitarianism were raised.  The classrooms and sanctuary are bridged by an ambulatory that wraps around the sanctuary where conceptually all methods of thought and belief of the Unitarian church converge to thus be confronted and unearthed. It’s a theological architectural promenade of learning, thought, questioning, and discovery.

The First Unitarian Church, similar to all of Kahn’s projects, is of monumental quality; the church and school take on a dominant stance in Rochester. Kahn’s implementation of brick and cast-in place concrete gives the buildings a massive presence, but the heavy, monumental design presents issues on lighting the interior spaces, especially in places of worship.

Since the classrooms are oriented around the perimeter of the building, there is a sense of regularity by the way in which Kahn approaches lighting the classrooms.  The façade has extruded window wells that filter the light within the classrooms. Each extrusion creates small seating spaces for the children within.  With the sanctuary being in the center of the building, directing natural light into the space is quite difficult.  However, Kahn design four light towers that are situated at each corner of the sanctuary.  The towers act as filters that saturate the sanctuary throughout the day constantly changing the perceptive qualities of the space even as the seasons change.

In all of Kahn’s architecture, light has always been a main component of design, but the way he approached lighting the sanctuary interior complimented and provoked the expressive material qualities of the space.  Kahn’s implementation of simple materials that do not require any extra detailing after their construction added to the atmosphere and character of the spaces ; he believe in the integrity of each material so much so that the cast-in place concrete would take on the formal qualities of the wood planks.

The unfinished aesthetic seems to dematerialize the qualities of each space giving the spaces a new aesthetic found among the details and the light.  In the sanctuary, the rough finish of the cast-in place concrete and the brick interior appear to wash away in the light, giving the light deconstructive properties, all the while giving the material luminous qualities that engulf and transform the space. Even though the First Unitarian Church is not one of Kahn’s more famous buildings, it is just as impressive and spatially intriguing.

From the design concept to the design of natural lighting systems are trademarks of Kahn’s architecture.  The First Unitarian Church is one Kahn’s finest examples of how architecture can have transformative effects, not simply with light or design, but the theoretical understanding and restructuring of the use of space.

Exeter Library / Louis Kahn

Architect: Louis Kahn
Location: Exeter, New Hampshire
General Contractor: H.P. Cummings Construction Company
Structural Engineer: Keast and Hood Company
Mechanical/Electrical Engineers: Dubin-Mindell-Bloome Associates
Project Year: 1965-1972
Project Footprint: 12,321 square feet

In 1965 Louis I. Kahn was commissioned by the Phillips Exeter Academy to design a library for the school. The Academy had been planning the new library for fifteen years but were consistently disappointed with the designs that the hired architects and committee were proposing. The Academy was very particular in knowing the kind of building they wanted: a brick exterior to match the Georgian buildings of the school and an interior with the ideal environment for study. Kahn’s sympathetic use of brick and his concerns for natural light met these specific principles that the Academy had in mind for the library, and thus the design fell in his hands.

More information on Louis Kahn’s Phillips Exeter Academy Library after the break.

“The quality of a library, by inspiring a superior faculty and attracting superior students, determines the effectiveness of a school. No longer a mere depository of books and magazines, the modern library becomes a laboratory for research and experimentation, a quiet retreat for study, reading and reflection, the intellectual center of the community.… Fulfilling needs of a school expected eventually to number one thousand students, unpretentious, though in a handsome, inviting contemporary style, such a library would affirm the regard at the Academy for the work of the mind and the hands of man.”

People enter the 111′x111′ square library from the ground floor and climb up a grand set of stone stairs to the first floor. Coming up the last step onto the first floor one can immediately perceive the relationship of reference area, circulation desk, and book stacks. Kahn found this aspect to be important so that visitors can easily understand the plan of the building upon their entrance. With the circulation desk on the first floor instead of the ground floor it is evident that service took priority over security. The Academy accepted this at ease since it allowed librarians to be closer to the bookstacks and the readers, therefore making the most sense when considering the function of a circulation desk in a library. The beauty in the architecture of the first floor, however, is what gave the Exeter Library its fame. This main floor reaches 70 feet in height and soaks in natural light from a clerestory at the top of this space and from large expanses of glass on the north and west sides.

From this 50 foot square space visitors can spot metal bookstacks and readers seven levels above through large holes punctured perfectly into the walls, almost touching at the corners where the walls square off. The upper floors contain book stacks for 250,000 volumes, a student computer lab, a viewing area for videotapes and DVDs, listening areas for music, offices for use of faculty members, and 210 specially designed study carrels for students.

On these floors are approximately 450 different seating types scattered among the building in different rooms, such as some lounges and on a terrace that encircles the building along the exterior of the fourth floor. Kahn used Exeter brick on the exterior of the nine story building, a material made in Exeter itself and a design factor that was important to the Academy. He also used stone and slatein the interior, and finished certain aspects of the library in natural wood.

The wood contrasted the stone by giving the spaces a sense of warmth and a glow that welcomed readers when the natural light flooded upon this natural material. The Academy was finally content with their new library when it was completed in 1972. Kahn was successful in meeting all of their resquests through his own principles of design. The building is functional and meets the needs of the readers first while still standing as an innovative structure in itself. It is, in Kahn’s words, “the thoughtful making of spaces.” 

In 1995 the building was officially named the Class of 1945 Library in honor of Phillips Exeter Academy’s eighth principal.