Louis i kahns phenomenah - Essay Example

But more than that, the buildings that are created become the living testimony of the coming together of men, of the institution of men. This whole manner of looking at the intricate connection of man, of buildings and of the institution of men is given to humanity by a man who himself changed the image, the very esse of architecture in the contemporary milieu – Louis I Kahn. The aim of this paper is to address one poignant question Why Louis I Kahn’s work is important in the history of architecture in particular and in the history of humanity in general?

In order to answer this question, this paper will look into three factors that are integral into the analysis of the question. First part of the paper will be the presentation of Louis I Kahn as the man, the architect and the philosopher. Second, the paper will delve into some of his buildings which attest to the great legacy that Kahn has left humankind - Salk Institute, the National Assembly in Sher-e-bangla in Bangladesh and the Kimbell Art Museum. Third, drawing heavily from what have been elucidated in the first and second parts of this paper, the paper will present the answers to the main question of this paper.

And as the task of answering the main query of this paper throws light to the gift and brilliance of Louis I Kahn, it is acknowledged that to be able to fully understand Louis I Kahn it “involves the rewriting of the history of architecture” 1 the paper holds that this simple exposition is minute in comparison to the greatness of Louis I Kahn the architect, the philosopher, the man. “Man is born with what to do but not how to do it; how to do it takes a long, long, long time.”2 Louis I Kahn said this statement in his 1966 Berkeley Lecture.

This claim thrust the reader into the conception that Kahn’s notion of the human nature is anchored on the age old philosophical ideal that human nature is beaming with potentiality for action and that what determines