Louis Kahn

KAHN’S DESIGN IDEA

At the start of a new commission, many architects begin their inquiry by studying the program for the proposed project. Facets of this studying might include a review of local building and zoning codes, an examination of the proposed site, including its soil and topographic conditions, and an investigation into the project’s functions, including allotted square footage and adjacencies of different uses. The client’s requests regarding the project are also considered. In short, the design process begins with a serious and studies inquiry into the project’s ‘facts’.
Louis Kahn did not begin his design process in this manner. To be sure, he eventually did all of these things which other architects do. He felt, however, that such inquiry into a proposed project’s program-its ‘facts’- was not the appropriate place to begin a design. He said, ‘Architecture is the thoughtful making of spaces, not the filling of areas prescribed by a client.’ Elsewhere Kahn said, ‘It is the world of the architect to indicate those spaces which have never been and could not have been thought of by the client, but for which the client really wants you. The great client wants the architect to tell him that the fullness of the environment must be presented, from it true choices can be made.’

For Kahn, design was a two-step process. The first step was to consider the particular ‘institution’ to be designed (in this instance, a library), while the second step was to come to terms with the project’s ‘facts’. Kahn believed that all institutions had almost elemental meanings that were far more critical to a design’s success than mere functional issues. He argues that these institutions possessed ‘forms’. Rather than meaning physical forms, however, Kahn meant that the institution possessed a spiritual form which would be based on men’s and women’s experiences of using it. This form gave the building an ‘existence will’- the desire to be something. Thus,