DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL

STYLE.
LOUIS I KHAN
INTRODUCTION:
• Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky) (March 5 [ February
20] 1901 – March 17, 1974) was an American architect, based
in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in
Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. While continuing his
private practice, he served as a design critic and professor of
architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. From
1957 until his death, he was a professor of architecture at the School of
Design at the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his Bachelor
of Architecture
• in 1924, Kahn worked as senior draftsman in the office of the city
architect, John Molitor. He worked on the designs for the 1926
Sesquicentennial Exposition.
EARLY LIFE:
• Louis Kahn, whose original name was Itze-Leib (Leiser-Itze) Schmuilowsky
(Schmalowski), was born into a poor Jewish family in Pärnu,formerly in Russian Empire,
but now in Estonia. He spent his early childhood in Kuressaare on the island
of Saaremaa, then part of the Russian Empire's Livonian Governorate. At the age of
three, he saw coals in the stove and was captivated by the light of the coal. He put the
coal in his apron, which caught on fire and burned his face. He carried these scars for
the rest of his life.
• EDUCATION:
Kahn excelled in art from a young age, repeatedly winning the annual
award for the best watercolor by a Philadelphia high school student. He
was an unenthusiastic and undistinguished student at Philadelphia Central
High School until he took a course in architecture in his senior year, which
convinced him to become an architect. He turned down an offer to go to
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to study art under a full
scholarship, instead working at a variety of jobs to pay his own tuition for
a degree in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine
Arts. There, he studied under Paul Philippe Cret in a version of the Beaux-
Arts tradition, one that discouraged excessive ornamentation.
CHARECTERISTICS:
• Louis I. khan evolved an original theoretical and
formal language that revitalized modern
architecture.
• They reveal an integration of structure, a
reverence for materials and light, a devotion to
archetypal geometry.
• Loius I. khan believed architecture must evoke
that feeling and symbolism of timeless human
values.
• SIGNIFICANT ELEMENTS OF DESIGN:
Kahn wanted to redefine the bases of architecture
through a re-examination of structure, form, space,
and light; since his earlier work abstained from the
international style modernism.
• Earlier works of Kahn had a traditional
international style of architecture. However
somewhere in the middle of his career, Kahn
turned his back on this traditional approach and
pursued innovation by redefining the use of
structure, light, form and space.
• “Louis Kahn described his quest for meaningful
form as a search for "beginnings," a spiritual
resource from which modern man could draw
inspiration“.
• Kahn was also influenced by the part of Philadelphia where he grew up. There
were many factory buildings with large windows. These brick structures were
very solid. This industrial design is apparent in several of Kahn's early works.
• Louis Kahn must be credited for re-introducing various concepts which most of
the modern architects had deserted like centralized spaces, using extensive
geometric principles and demonstrating solid mural strength.
• Kahn's buildings are admired for outstanding use of geometric shapes and
implementing platonic geometry principles which creates magnificent
experience for the user.
• For Kahn it was NATURAL LIGHT that brought architecture to life, the Artificial
light had an unvarying “DEAD” quality in contrast to the ever-changing daylight.
• Kahn realised the importance of sunlight and was highly impressed by its usage
in Egyptians and Greek works. Hence Kahn's works demonstrates wide-scale
implementation of sunlight through different kinds of interesting windows and
openings.
• Kahn was known to appreciate the
appearance and feel of different materials
that he used in his work.
• Kahn is also known to have used brick and
concrete extensively and his innovative
usage of these materials demonstrated his
talent to the world.
• Egyptian works also inspired Kahn to use
extensive geometric shapes and hence we
find many of his buildings taking shape of
squares, circles or triangles.
DESIGNS:
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut (1951–1953), the first significant
commission of Louis Kahn and his first masterpiece, replete with technical innovations.
For example, he designed a hollow concrete tetrahedral space-frame that did away
with the need for ductwork and reduced the floor-to-floor height by channeling air
through the structure itself. Like many of Kahn's buildings, the Art Gallery makes
subtle references to its context while overtly rejecting any historical style.
• Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania (1957–1965), a breakthrough in Kahn's career that helped set new
directions for modern architecture with its clear expression of served and servant
spaces and its evocation of the architecture of the past.
• The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California (1959–1965) was to be a campus composed of
three main clusters: meeting and conference areas, living quarters, and laboratories.
Only the laboratory cluster, consisting of two parallel blocks enclosing a water garden,
was built. The two laboratory blocks frame a long view of the Pacific Ocean,
accentuated by a thin linear fountain that seems to reach
•First Unitarian Church, Rochester, New York (1959–1969), named as one of the greatest religious
structures of the twentieth century by Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural
critic. Tall, narrow window recesses create an irregular rhythm of shadows on the exterior while
four light towers flood the sanctuary walls with indirect, natural light.
•Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
•Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in Ahmedabad, India (1961)
•National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Dhaka, Bangladesh (1963)
•Eleanor Donnelly Erdman Hall, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1960-1965),
designed as a modern Scottish castle. Page text.
•Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, New Hampshire (1965–1972), awarded the Twenty-five
Year Award by the American Institute of Architects in 1997. It is famous for its dramatic atrium
with enormous circular openings into the book stacks.
•Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (1967–1972), features repeated bays of cycloid-shaped
barrel vaults with light slits along the apex, which bathe the artwork on display in an ever-
changing diffuse light.
•Arts United Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana (1973), The only building realized of a ten-building Arts
Campus vision, Kahn's only theatre and building in the Midwest
•Hurva Synagogue, Jerusalem, Israel, (1968–1974), unbuilt
• Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1969–1974)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, New York (1972–1974),
construction completed 2012
• Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National Assembly Building) in Dhaka, Bangladesh was Kahn's
last project, developed 1962 to 1974. Kahn got the design contract with the help
of Muzharul Islam, one of his students at Yale University, who worked with him on the
project. The Bangladeshi Parliament building is the centerpiece of the national capital
complex designed by Kahn, which includes hostels, dining halls, and a hospital.
According to Robert McCarter, author of Louis I. Kahn, "it is one of the twentieth
century's greatest architectural monuments, and is without question Kahn's magnum
opus."
Louis Kahn's work infused the International style with
a fastidious, highly personal taste, a poetry of light.
His few projects reflect his deep personal
involvement with each. Isamu Noguchi called him "a
philosopher among architects." He was known for his
ability to create monumental architecture that
responded to the human scale. He also was
concerned with creating strong formal distinctions
between served spaces and servant spaces. What he
meant by servant spaces was not spaces for servants,
but rather spaces that serve other spaces, such as
stairwells, corridors, restrooms, or any other back-of-
house function such as storage space or mechanical
rooms. His palette of materials tended toward heavily
textured brick and bare concrete, the textures often
reinforced by juxtaposition to highly refined surfaces
such as travertine marble
• He is often well remembered for his deliberation about the use of brick, on
how it can be more than the basic building material.
 CASE STUDY OF
BUILDINGS OF
LOUIS I. KHAN
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, AHMEDABAD IN INDIA
ESTABLISHED 1961
TYPE: EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INSTITUTION
LOCATION: AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT INDIA CAMPUS URBAN, 100 ACRES
HISTORY:
IT WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1961 AS AN AUTONOMOUS
INSTITUTION BY THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN
COLLABORATION WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF GUJARAT
AND INDIAN INDUSTRY. DR. VIKRAM SARABHAI, A NOTED
SCIENTIST AND INDUSTRIALIST AND OTHER AHMEDABAD
BASED INDUSTRIALISTS SUCH AS KASTURBHAI LALBHAI
PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN THE CREATION OF THE
INSTITUTE.
ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN:
THE CAMPUS OF IIMA IS DOMINATED BY THE BAKED BRICK
STYLE FAVOURED BY THE ITS CHIEF ARCHITECT, THE
FAMOUS LOUIS KAHN. ALL THE STRUCTURES ARE DESIGNED
TO BE PART OF A WHOLE AND LOOKS ONE INTEGRAL
WHOLE. OTHER ARCHITECTS WHO COLLABORATED ON THE
CAMPUS INCLUDE THE RENOWNED B. V. DOSHI AND ANANT
RAJE.
• BEGINNING WITH THE OVERALL PLAN OF IIM, KAHN’S THINKING
WAS THAT TO UNITE THE REQUIREMENTS:-
•CLASSROOMS
•OFFICES
•LIBRARY
•DINING HALL
•DORMITORIES
•FACULTY RESIDENCES
•WORKERS’ HOUSING
•MARKET
THE PREVIOUSLY FINALISED DESIGN FOR ERDMAN HALL RECENTLY
DONE BY HIM BEFORE IIM INSPIRED HIM TO BASE HIS PLAN ON
DIAGONALS, WITH LONG, INTERCONNECTED DORMITORIES
BLOCK STRETCHING LIKE FINGERS FROM THE MAIN
INSTRUCTIONAL BUILDING, ENDING AT THE EDGE OF A LAKE.
• PLAN:
• DINING BLOCK:
ACROSS THE LAKE , HOUSES OF FACULTY WERE ARRANGED IN
CLUSTERS.
•THE DIAGONAL LAYOUT HAD THE PARTICULAR ADVANTAGE OF
RESPONDING WELL TO THE REQUIREMENT THAT THE BUILDINGS
BE ORIENTED TOWARDS THE SOUTH WESTERLY BREEZES.
•KAHN SUB-DIVIDED THE DORMITORIES INTO 20 BEDROOM
UNIT.
•KAHN USED THE LOCAL BRICK WHICH HE FOUND WAS MORE
EFFECTIVE IN ATTACHING THE SCHOOL DESIGN TO ITS INDIAN
ENVIRONMENT.
•ALTHOUGH HE HAD FREQUENTLY USED BRICK VENEER BEFORE
BUT HE WAS COMMITED TO USED BRICK AS A STRUCTURAL
MATERIAL IN AHMEDABAD AS HE COMPLETELY STUDIED ITS
PROPERTIES AND ADMITTED THAT HIS ARCHED FORMS BORE
WITNESS TO THE SINCERITY WITH BRICK.
•THE BUILDING INCLUDES FREE STANDING LECTURE ROOMS
AND BLOCKS OF FACULTY OFFICE WHICH STOOD ON OPPOSITE
SIDES OF A GREAT CENTRAL COURTYARD, LINKED NOT BY
CORRIDORS BUT BY SHADY WALKWAYS THAT OFFERED MANY
PLACES TO STOP AND TALK.
 

•ACCORDING TO KAHN THE LIFE OF

LEARNING AND SELF INSTRUCTION WAS ALSO
INTEGRAL TO THE DESIGN OF THE
RESIDENTIAL PART OF THE COMPLEX. FOR
THIS HE CLOSLY LINKED THE DORMITORIES TO
THE MAIN BUILDING SO THAT THE
DORMITORY AND THE SCHOOL ARE REALLY
ONE AND ARE ALSO THE PLACES WHERE
PEOPLE CAN MEET. VIEW SHOWING SHADY
WALKWAY
• THIS THINKING GENERATED A WONDERFULY RICH
ARRANGEMENT OF PUBLIC, SEMI PRIVATE AND
PRIVATE SPACES IN AND AROUND THE 18
DORMITORY UNIT THAT GROUP ON TWO SIDE OF
THE MAIN BUILDING.
•THE CORRIDORS , DUE TO ITS GREATER WIDTH
COULD BE TRANSFORMED INTO CLASSROOMS FOR
THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF STUDENTS.THESE COULD
BECOME THE PLACES WHERE BOY MEETS GIRL OR
WHERE STUDENTS DISCUSSES THE WORK WITH
FELLOW STUDENT. THUS PROVIDING PLACES
OFFERING POSSIBILITIES IN SELF LEARNING. VIEW
SHOWING DORMITORIES
 DORMITORY BLOCK
•EACH FOUR STOREY DORMITORY BLOCK
ACCOMODATED 20 PRIVATE ROOMS, ARRANGED ON
THE TWO UPPER FLOORS AROUND TRIANGULAR
LOUNGES OR TEA ROOMS THAT OPENED TO THE
OUTSIDE THROUGH THE GIANT CIRCULAR
PERFORATIONS.
•KITCHEN AND TOILETS WERE CONTAINED WITHIN A
SQUARE TOWER ATTACH TO THE LONG FACE OF THE
OVERALL TRIANGULAR PLAN.
•THE LOWER FLOORS WERE ENTIRELY DEVOTED TO
COMMUNAL SPACE SERVING AS MEETING ROOMS FOR
STUDENT ORGANISATION AND OTHER ACTIVITIES.
•THE DORMITORIES HAD A NETWORK OF SMALL
COURTYARD INTERCONNECTED BY PARTIALLY
ENCLOSED GROUND FLOOR.
SALK INSTITUTE
• The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is an independent, non-profit, scientific
research institute located in La Jolla, California. It was founded in 1960 by Jonas
Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine. The Salk institute is composed of 2
groups of buildings sited on the edge of a magnificent cliff, with the Pacific
Ocean falling behind in the horizon. The institute is housed in a complex
designed by the firm of Louis Kahn. Michael Duff of the Kahn firm was the
supervising architect and a major design influence on the structure that consists
of two symmetric buildings with a stream of water flowing in the middle of a
courtyard that separates the two. The buildings themselves have been designed
to prom
• There is one floor in the basement, and two above it on both sides. The
lighting fixtures have been designed to easily slide along rails on the roof,
in tune with the collaborative and open philosophy of the Salk Institute's
science.
• According to A. Perez, the concrete was made with volcanic ash relying
on the basis of ancient Roman concrete making techniques, and as a
result gives off a warm, pinkish glow.
• The 2 buildings are mirrored around an open plaza which forms a strong
linear axis with the Pacific Ocean on one end and the entrance on the
other, thus highlighting and framing the landscape rather than imposing
itself on it.
• THE STRUCTURE THAT
CONSISTS OF TWO
SYMMETRIC BUILDINGS WITH
A STREAM OF WATER
FLOWING IN THE MIDDLE OF
A COURTYARD THAT
SEPARATES THE TWO.
•  A diagonal wall allows each of the
thirty-six scientists using the studies to
have a view of the Pacific, and every
study is fitted with a combination of
operable sliding and fixed glass panels
in teak wood frames.
• Originally the design also included
living quarters and a conference
building, but they were never actually
built.
• In the courtyard is a citrus
grove containing several
orderly rows of lime trees.
• The original grove contained
orange and kumquat trees
which were then replaced
with lime trees in the 1995
grove refurbishment.
PLA
N:
• The buildings are 6 floors in height with 3 levels
housing the laboratories while the other 3 houses the
services and utilities.
• Each laboratory block has five study towers, with each
tower containing four offices, except for those near
the entrance to the court, which only contain two.
• Kahn used concrete, teak, lead glass and steel as his
material palette.
• Made in exposed concrete, the walls are unfinished
showing clearly the shuttering marks and also the tie
rod holes.
• The imperfections formed in the concrete surface
during casting were left as such and were not covered
up and finished, maintaining the integrity of the
material.
• Similarly, the teak & steel were also left
unfinished to weather naturally over time.
• The scientists tell that not only is the
building beautiful, but it is functional as
well.
• It was one of the first buildings which he
was really satisfied with, a place which was
really spiritual.
THANK
YOU