Louis I. Kahn and Contemporary Architecture: Comparative Critical Analyses of Built Works

3 units

A graduate seminar employing comparative critical analyses to explore ten works of the American architect Louis Kahn (1901-1974) and works by ten contemporary architects who have been influenced in some way by the works of Kahn, selected from a list including Steven Holl, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Peter Zumthor, Herman Hertzberger, Grafton Architects, Brad Cloepfil/Allied Works, Wiel Arets, Stanley Saitowitz, Thomas Phifer and Nieto Sobejano. Kahn was one of the most influential of the second generation of Modern architects, and this course will explore the architectural ordering principles structuring his work, how these were often derived from Kahn's perceptions regarding the works of his predecessors, and the manner in which these ordering principles have been employed by contemporary architects. Analytical methods employed in the course will cover that full range of contextual, cultural, material, constructive, and experiential attributes of buildings, with particular emphasis on Kahn's focus on the manner in which the spaces of a building are ordered by the patterns of occupation and the poetics of use, as well as the poetics of construction, or the way in which a building is built, and of what materials it is made, and how all these combine to construct the experience of those who inhabit it. Following introductory lectures by the faculty, each of the subsequent ten class meetings will consist of a presentation of a selected pair of buildings, one by Kahn and one by a contemporary architect, to be presented by teams of two students. Each student team will present two buildings, one by Kahn and one by a contemporary architect; one presentation in the first half of the semester, and one presentation in the second half of the semester. Students will be evaluated on both the quality of their team presentations, and on the quality of their participation in the class discussions accompanying each presentation.