Salk Institute: Louis I.Kahn (Architecture in Detail)

Steele, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714829145 ISBN 13: 9780714829142

Publisher: Phaidon Press Ltd, 1993

Louis Kahn's Salk Institute for Biological Studies sits high above the Pacific Ocean at La Jolla, Southern California. The project presented Kahn with the opportunity to design for a closed community, in this case scientists, involved in concentrated research. In formulating his response to both the programme and the site, Kahn drew inspiration, from such traditional prototypes as monasteries and other forms of intellectual retreat. Kahn distinguished between the large, free-plan spaces of the laboratories and the rooms for private study, expressing these cell-like spaces as wooden panelled apertures set into otherwise bare concrete walls. As a complex, it remained incomplete at Kahn's death but it survives as an enduring reminder of his humanism and architectural genius.

Review:

'The Architecture in Detail series is without question one of the most beautifully illustrated and well-documented collections of monographs on individual buildings produced anywhere in the World.'

About the Author:

James Steele is Associate Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and has written frequently for Architectural Design, Architectural Review and Mimar.