You Say to Brick – The Life of Louis
Kahn (2017) is the biography of American architect, Louis Kahn (1901-1974).
Although his output was few, he was regarded as one of the greatest architects
of the 20th century.
His ‘masterpieces’ were all built
during the last 15 years of his life. These included: Salk Institute for
Biological Studies (1959-1965), Indian Institute of Management (1961), National
Assembly Building of Bangladesh (1962-1974), Phillips Exter Library (1965-1972),
and the Kimbell Art Museum (1967-1972). His works are described as both
timeless and of his time.
Born Leiser-Itze Schmulowsky (there
are several spellings of his name) into a Jewish family in Estonia, the family
moved to America in 1906. His father wanted him to be a painter and his mother
wanted him to be a musician. Louis always knew he would be an architect.
The title of the biography comes from Kahn’s
explanation of how he designs buildings: ‘If you say to brick, ‘Arches are
expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over an opening. What do you think
of that, brick?’ Brick says, I like an arch.’’
This biography begins at the end; the
last days of Louis Kahn’s life, his death, and his funeral – at the age of 73.
He left a wife Esther and daughter Sue Ann. But he also had two children to two
other women: a 20-year-old daughter Alexandra, and an 11-year old son Nathaniel.
The biography not only details the public life of Louis Kahn, it also bring to
light his secretive personal life. He was described as an ‘elusive’ man. On his
death, his ‘habit of … being routinely unlocatable for an indeterminate period
of time, had gone from temporary to permanent.’
The biography then dedicates a chapter
to each of Kahn’s major designs. The design of the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies showed a ‘highly imaginative visionary’ as well as a
‘practical soul of a maintenance man.’ At the Phillips Exter Library ‘geometry
has truly triumphed’ and ‘Louis Kahn understood light like no other architect.’
The National Assembly Building of Bangladesh is ‘Kahn’s most supremely
beautiful accomplishment’ despite its ‘initial strangeness.’
But many of his designs were never
built.
Was Louis Kahn a mystic or a man of
agony? Lesser combines the professional man with the personal man, and shows
the complexity of his life and architecture in a fascinating and compelling
biography.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom
(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest
Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The
Sudan Curse (2009).
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