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Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing - by Michael Merrill (Hardcover)
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Highlights
- An intimate guided journey into Louis Kahn´s craft and imagination, this book weaves its texts around the drawings of Kahn and his associates to accompany this master architect on his creative search"The importance of a drawing is immense, because it's the architect's language," said the architect Louis Kahn to his masterclass in 1967.
- Author(s): Michael Merrill
- 512 Pages
- Architecture, Individual Architects & Firms
Description
Book Synopsis
An intimate guided journey into Louis Kahn´s craft and imagination, this book weaves its texts around the drawings of Kahn and his associates to accompany this master architect on his creative search
"The importance of a drawing is immense, because it's the architect's language," said the architect Louis Kahn to his masterclass in 1967. While most studies of Kahn focus on his built works or theory and use drawings mainly to illustrate these, this publication chooses to focus on Kahn's drawings as primary sources of insight into his architectural intelligence and imagination. Lavishly illustrated with over 900 high-quality reproductions of work by Kahn and his associates, incisively presented by a group of acclaimed architectural experts, The Importance of a Drawing is a deep immersion into Kahn's work and his design process.
A testament to Kahn's masterly craft, this volume also makes a provocative primer on architectural representation by posing timely questions on how architects use drawings to see, learn, conjecture and reveal. Destined to become a standard reference on Kahn, this book is an essential addition to the libraries of established designers as well as students of architecture.
The result of years of extensive research, The Importance of a Drawing contains original contributions and historical texts from Michael Merrill, Michael Benedikt, Michael B. Cadwell, Louis I. Kahn, Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, David Leatherbarrow, Michael J. Lewis, Robert McCarter, Marshall D. Meyers, Jane Murphy, Harriet Pattison, Gina Pollara, Colin Rowe, David Van Zanten, Richard Wesley and William Whitaker.
Louis Kahn (1901-74) was an Estonian-born American architect who called Philadelphia his home. Trained in the tradition of the École des Beaux-Arts, Kahn was later able to fuse a progressive modern agenda with the poise of ancient monuments into a work of seminal and lasting importance. His major works include the National Parliament in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth Texas; and the posthumously realized Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Kahn was a revered educator, teaching at the Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957 and then at the University of Pennsylvania until his death.
Review Quotes
The book stands as a forceful argument for the importance of printed books - for architects, teachers, and above all for students.--Stan Allen "Drawing Matter"
This book fills a void and does it in a way that should please any fan of Kahn.--John Hill "A Daily Dose of Architecture Books"
This book is not only visually beautiful, but has a trove of insights into the creative process of design.--Jill Broderick "Rhapsody in Books"
An essential addition not only to scholarship on this seminal architect and his creative process, but also to the discourse on representation and architecture.--David Rhodes "Brooklyn Rail"