My Architect
My Architect
Born in Saarama, Estonia in 1901, Louis Kahn’s family emigrated to the U.S. in 1905. At the age of three, he placed a glowing coal on his apron and it promptly lit on fire, burning and scarring his face, leaving a distinguishable physical abnormality that he would have to overcome as he grew up. Living a fairly dull existence, perhaps the most interesting fact of Kahn’s early life is that he worked in silent movie theaters as a pianist as a child before his education. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he would later work as a Dean, and continued on a boring architect’s career as a draftsman, and then later working with partners until 1948, when he worked solo. In 1974, Kahn collapsed in the men’s bathroom of NY’s Penn Station, and died shortly after of a heart attack. Although he was married to Esther Israeli, he maintained affairs with Anne and Harriet Pattison, who is the mother of Nathaniel, our narrator. In this documentary, Nathaniel brings us to all of Kahn’s major architectural works, and relies on the stories of people involved with them to discover his unknown history.
Though perhaps it was a minor point made by Nathaniel, the following detail struck me as a very important one, possibly because I have difficulty modulating my own surfaces. A point of contention regarding Kahn’s work is the quality of surfaces he uses. It is argued in the documentary, and in fact, visually shown, that Kahn’s “poché” concrete walls are rough and heavily textured, representing Kahn’s acknowledgement and expression of his facial scars on his building materials. However, in the course of my research, I found many opinions that state that he did his best to make his raw surfaces as smooth as possible, perhaps to express his internal longing of a banishment of his scars. One even goes as far as to explicitly state that Kahn is intentionally smoothening the surfaces in the Salk Institute of Biological Studies. “Kahn worked closely with the contractor to achieve a concrete surface which was uniform and of a consistently smooth and even finish that is still the standard by which architects measure the quality of concrete construction today.” The National Assembly Building at Dhaka, the building that was referenced by the video as showing roughness in the walls, was built at the very end of his life, and the Salk Institute was constructed much earlier. One might then come to the misguided conclusion that, as a young man, Kahn tried to deal with his scars by making his walls as smooth as possible. As he grew older and wiser, he learned that imperfections are what make life (and his buildings) so interesting. However, this theory does not hold true for the totality of his works. His Esherick House (1959-1961), was built in the same time period as the Salk Institute (1959-1965); the Esherick House’s exterior is made of stucco, which provides a very perturbed surface. In addition, his Kimbel Art Museum (1967-1972), constructed within the same time as the National Assembly Building (1962-1974), has its concrete features quite smoothly constructed, though raw, as is necessary when using concrete in this fashion. One cannot use his natural maturation as a justification for the varying concrete surfaces he uses, nor can one associate this discrepancy to statistical variance, as his other works, chronologically speaking, do not show a pattern from smooth to rough. Although, yes, the materials Kahn had available to him at Dhaka were limited (the documentary explained how every piece of material was brought in by pure manpower), it may potentially explain the roughness of material in that instance (although, to a much lesser extent, it is only a matter of overlaying another material, or manipulating the existing material to achieve the quality one wishes. After all, one can always polish rough surfaces, and dent smooth ones). If then, that is true, for what reason does he choose such a rough surface for his other buildings, when smoother materials were available? If he wanted to use rough surfaces only, why smoothen the concrete in his other buildings? I unfortunately cannot present an argument for Kahn’s surfaces, though I felt it was important to note that, perhaps, Kahn’s facial scars had no influence, whether associative, as the video implies, or dissociative, as one may imply from his intense involvement (to go as far as to instruct the contractors how exactly to complete parts) in the construction of smooth surfaces.
Born in Saarama, Estonia in 1901, Louis Kahn’s family emigrated to the U.S. in 1905. At the age of three, he placed a glowing coal on his apron and it promptly lit on fire, burning and scarring his face, leaving a distinguishable physical abnormality that he would have to overcome as he grew up. Living a fairly dull existence, perhaps the most interesting fact of Kahn’s early life is that he worked in silent movie theaters as a pianist as a child before his education. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he would later work as a Dean, and continued on a boring architect’s career as a draftsman, and then later working with partners until 1948, when he worked solo. In 1974, Kahn collapsed in the men’s bathroom of NY’s Penn Station, and died shortly after of a heart attack. Although he was married to Esther Israeli, he maintained affairs with Anne and Harriet Pattison, who is the mother of Nathaniel, our narrator. In this documentary, Nathaniel brings us to all of Kahn’s major architectural works, and relies on the stories of people involved with them to discover his unknown history.
Though perhaps it was a minor point made by Nathaniel, the following detail struck me as a very important one, possibly because I have difficulty modulating my own surfaces. A point of contention regarding Kahn’s work is the quality of surfaces he uses. It is argued in the documentary, and in fact, visually shown, that Kahn’s “poché” concrete walls are rough and heavily textured, representing Kahn’s acknowledgement and expression of his facial scars on his building materials. However, in the course of my research, I found many opinions that state that he did his best to make his raw surfaces as smooth as possible, perhaps to express his internal longing of a banishment of his scars. One even goes as far as to explicitly state that Kahn is intentionally smoothening the surfaces in the Salk Institute of Biological Studies. “Kahn worked closely with the contractor to achieve a concrete surface which was uniform and of a consistently smooth and even finish that is still the standard by which architects measure the quality of concrete construction today.” The National Assembly Building at Dhaka, the building that was referenced by the video as showing roughness in the walls, was built at the very end of his life, and the Salk Institute was constructed much earlier. One might then come to the misguided conclusion that, as a young man, Kahn tried to deal with his scars by making his walls as smooth as possible. As he grew older and wiser, he learned that imperfections are what make life (and his buildings) so interesting. However, this theory does not hold true for the totality of his works. His Esherick House (1959-1961), was built in the same time period as the Salk Institute (1959-1965); the Esherick House’s exterior is made of stucco, which provides a very perturbed surface. In addition, his Kimbel Art Museum (1967-1972), constructed within the same time as the National Assembly Building (1962-1974), has its concrete features quite smoothly constructed, though raw, as is necessary when using concrete in this fashion. One cannot use his natural maturation as a justification for the varying concrete surfaces he uses, nor can one associate this discrepancy to statistical variance, as his other works, chronologically speaking, do not show a pattern from smooth to rough. Although, yes, the materials Kahn had available to him at Dhaka were limited (the documentary explained how every piece of material was brought in by pure manpower), it may potentially explain the roughness of material in that instance (although, to a much lesser extent, it is only a matter of overlaying another material, or manipulating the existing material to achieve the quality one wishes. After all, one can always polish rough surfaces, and dent smooth ones). If then, that is true, for what reason does he choose such a rough surface for his other buildings, when smoother materials were available? If he wanted to use rough surfaces only, why smoothen the concrete in his other buildings? I unfortunately cannot present an argument for Kahn’s surfaces, though I felt it was important to note that, perhaps, Kahn’s facial scars had no influence, whether associative, as the video implies, or dissociative, as one may imply from his intense involvement (to go as far as to instruct the contractors how exactly to complete parts) in the construction of smooth surfaces.
posted by microzeta at
6:47 PM
1 Comments:
My architect is here for the appreciation and improved nature. The suggestions of the architect are induced for the britishessays to be invoked and suggested. The motion is ascertained for the pertinent and amplified nature of the nature.
By
Dickens, at 1:54 PM
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