1956

Richards Medical Research Laboratories

The Richards Medical Research Laboratories, located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., are considered to have been a breakthrough in Louis Kahn career. The building is configured as a group of laboratory towers with a central service tower. Brick shafts on the periphery hold stair wells and air ducts, producing an effect reminiscent of the ancient Italian towers that Kahn had painted several years earlier.Rather than being supported by a hidden steel frame, the buil-ding has a structure of reinforced concrete that is clearly visible and openly depicted as bearing weight. Built with precisely-for-med prefabricated concrete elements, the techniques used in its construction advanced the state of the art for reinforced concrete.

“A building is like a human, an architect has the opportunity of creating life. The way

the knuckles and joints come together make each hand interesting and beautiful.

In a building these details should not be put in a mitten and hidden. Space is architectural when the evidence of how it is made is seen

and comprehended.”

1959

First Unitarian Church

Kahn’s initial concept sketch began with a question mark, chosen to represent the sanctuary, at the center of the building surrounded by a circle to serve as an ambulatory representing the shades of belief possible in a Unitarian congregation. Surroun-ding all were the classrooms of the church school, in Kahn’s words “so the school became the walls which surround the question.”

“Architecture is the thoughtful making of spaces. It is the creating of spaces

that evoke a feeling of appropriate use.”

Margaret Esherick House

1959

The Esherick House is one of the most studied of the nine built houses designed by Louis Kahn. Located at 204 Sunrise Lane in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsyl-vania, U.S., it was commissioned by Margaret Esherick in 1959 and completed in 1961. Its copper and wood kitchen was created by Wharton Esherick, a nationally known craftsman and artist who was also her uncle. The Esherick House received the Land-mark Building Award from the Philadelphia chapter of the Ameri-can Institute of Architects in 1992 and was added to Pennsylvania Register of Historic Places in 2009.The 230 sq meters, single-bedroom house is a flat-roofed, rec-tangular solid with its long side facing the street. The primary building material is concrete block with stucco facing.Kahn designed an addition to the house in 1962-1964 for its subsequent owner, Mrs. C. Parker, but it was never built. Designed to blend seamlessly with the existing house, the addition would have increased the house’s size significantly by extending the house to the left as one faces the front door.

“House of Dark Stucco, stained natural wood reveals for windows. The building will not look

flat. The deep reveal of windows, entrance alcoves and 2nd floor lower porches will give

it an alive look at all times. The 2 parts of the building divided by the alcoves should

offer subtle silhouette.”

1959

Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Kahn’s creation consists of two mirror-image structures that flank a grand courtyard. Each building is six stories tall. Three floors contain laboratories and the three levels above the laboratory floors provide access to utilities. Protruding into the courtyard are separate towers that provide space for individual professorial studies. The towers at the east end of the buildings contain heating, ventilating, and other support systems. At the west end are six floors of offices overlooking the ocean. Together, there are 29 separate structures joined together to form the Institute.Kahn’s imaginative use of space and his high regard for natu-ral light. He built all four outer walls of the laboratory levels out of large, double-strength glass panes, producing an open, airy work environment. Local zoning codes restricted the height of the buildings so that the first two stories had to be underground. This did not, however, prevent the architect from bringing in daylight: he designed a series of light wells 40 feet long and 25 feet wide on both sides of each building to bring daylight into the lowest level.

“When one knows what to do, there is onlylittle time one needs for doing it.

It is only when one does not Know what to do that it takes so much time. And to know

what to do is the secret of it all.”