Relationship between Serving Space and Structural Elements in Louis Kahns Laboratories and Museum - Essay Example

? 5 May Relationship between Serving Space and Structural Elements in Louis Kahn’s Laboratories and Museum Introduction Architecture originates in the man’s need to make this world a beautiful place to live in. Architectural work in the structures provides spaces that are psychologically meaningful for the users in the vast expanse of the world created by the nature. “Man creates his building to facilitate his psychic needs for identity and for wellbeing. His buildings as such form points of reference of his beliefs and values. This enables man to form a bond with his natural surroundings” (Sylva). However, man’s needs are not satisfied by every structure. It takes the skills and expertise of an architect like Louis Kahn to satisfy the needs of users through the architecture of the structure. Louis Kahn has been one of the most famous and innovative modern architects across the globe (Scully 3). He started learning architecture from Tadd, his mentor. Rather than teaching his students the typical educational principles, Tadd allowed them to explore their creativity and imagination with natural forms, thus encouraging them to learn by doing. Kahn expressed his journey of learning in these words, “A few years ago I visited Carcassonne. From the moment I entered the gates, I began to write with drawing, the images which I learned about now presenting themselves to me like realized dreams. I began studiously to memorize in line the proportions and the living details of these great buildings. I spent the whole day in the courts, on the ramparts, and in the towers, diminishing my care about the proper proportions and exact details. At the close of the day I was inventing shapes and placing buildings in different relationships than they were.” (Kahn cited in Booher 4). This paper discusses the relationship between serving space and structural elements in different projects that Louis Kahn worked upon. The projects discussed in the paper include the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, and the Kimbell Art Museum. All three of these projects are some of the most remarkable works of Louis Kahn. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies The pioneer of the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk established the Salk Institute in the 1960s. Inspired by the outstanding architectural skills of Louis Kahn, Jonas Salk offered him to design the facility. Jonas Salk wanted this Institute to be constructed in a distinctive manner. Louis Kahn was hired to provide unobstructed and voluminous spaces inside the laboratory so that they could be adapted to the readily modifying scientific needs. The building materials were supposed to be durable, simple, strong, and free of maintenance to the maximum extent. Kahn created two mirror-image structures aside a large courtyard. The height of each building is six stories, with the three floors at the base being used as laboratories, whereas the top three floors meant to provide the users with access to the utilities. There are distinct towers that protrude into the courtyard and provide the users with space to conduct individual professorial studies. Separate ventilation, heating, and support systems have been installed in the towers located at the buildings’ eastern ends. Six floors at the western end of the buildings overlook the ocean. In total, the Institute has been formed by the linkage of 29 distinct structures. The impact of outstanding architecture of Louis Kahn can be assessed from the courtyard. Things that need to be taken into consideration include the creative use of space and the level of emphasis Kahn has placed upon the utilization of the natural light. To entertain the vision of Jonas Salk that the environment inside the Institute should be suitable for the conduction of scientific research, Louis Kahn allowed maximal in-pour of the natural light. Each of the four external walls of the laboratory at all levels have been constructed from large panes of double-strength glass, which provide a vast airy environment for the work. The first two stories of the buildings had to be constructed underground because the limitations imposed upon the height of the buildings by the local zoning codes. In spite of all these limitations, Louis Kahn found his way out to bring the daylight inside each storey of the Institute. In order to achieve this, Louis Kahn made use of a series of light wells with the length of 40 feet and the width of 25 feet on each side of the structure in order to provide the lowest level with the daylight. Jonas Salk and Louis Kahn collaborated to design the laboratory that is uniquely suited to the needs of scientific studies to this date. After the challenge of providing the underground stories of the buildings with daylight, the next challenge for Louis Kahn to encounter was to make use of such materials which required minimal maintenance and would be strong enough to last for generations. Louis Kahn prudently selected several materials that included but were not limited to lead, teak, concrete, special steel, and glass. The visitors gain the first bold impression of the strength of the buildings from the look of the cast in-situ concrete walls. Louis Kahn referred to the old construction practices of the Roman times to reveal the unique waterproofing qualities of the pozzuolanic concrete. The quality of work can be assessed from the fact that the concrete was allowed no addition time for grinding, filling of the honeycombed areas, or finishing after it had set. Most importantly, the concrete is not even painted. Louis Kahn chose the teak surrounding the west office windows and the study towers to contain an unfinished look, and decided not to use any stain or sealer upon the teak. This was done in an attempt to minimize the maintenance needs of the building. The success of Louis Kahn’s vision can be estimated from the fact that with only minor maintenance, the exterior of the building looks today just as it did back in the 1960s when it was constructed. The monumental nature of the building is enhanced by the open travertine marble’s courtyard which provides the building with frontage to the sky. The architectural work of Louis Kahn in the Salk Institute has been widely recognized and appreciated. The San Diego Union-Tribune has referred to the Salk Institute as San Diego’s one and only most significant architectural place. “For laboratory architecture, however ?exible in theory, necessarily stabilizes scienti?c practice, since a philosophy of research is embedded in the very structure of the building and persists far longer than the initial vision and mission that gave it life” (Leslie 173). The Richards Medical Research Laboratories In the early 1950s, Louis Kahn resolved to abandon the use of lightweight steel structures which were the epitome of the modern architecture. Louis Kahn saw concrete as a more suitable material for use in the structures in order to provide them with strength, support, and sculptural embellishment. In order to make best use of concrete, Louis Kahn needed the companionship of a structural engineer who comprehended his philosophy of architecture and his ideas of structural designs to materialize his architectural themes. Louis Kahn also needed the structural engineer to propose suitable alternatives to his design if that was not workable from the structural point of view. The structural engineer Komendant began collaboration with Louis Kahn in 1956 which lasted for 18 years until Louis Kahn’s death. The first project which Louis Kahn and Komendant jointly worked upon was of the Richards Medical Research Laboratories. Louis Kahn and Komendant also jointly worked upon the construction of the Kimbell Art Museum and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The Richards Medical Research Laboratories are located in Philadelphia. They comprise eight stories in total. Structure of the Richards Medical Research Laboratories has been made with columns, and beams of pre-stressed and pre-cast concrete and trusses. In order to enhance the visibility of the structure, Louis Kahn exposed the elements of the structure on the exterior of the building as well as in the ceilings of the laboratory. To allow the public to inspect the structure as well as the Vierendeel trusses, Louis Kahn left the entry porch’s ceiling open. The trusses appear to be ladders that have been turned on their sides so as to provide large rectangular openings for easy movement of ducts and thread pipes into the laboratories. “The Medical Research Building at the University of Pennsylvania is conceived in recognition of the realization that science laboratories are studios and that the air to breathe should be away from the air to throw away” (Kahn cited in “Richards Medical Center”). Laboratories in the Richards building are housed in three separate towers which are connected to a fourth tower in the center in a pinwheel arrangement. This fourth tower contains all the mechanical systems, stairs, elevators, and research animals. There are eight floors in each tower, with an area of 45 foot square each. This area does not contain any elevators, stairs or columns for internal support. There are eight columns which externally support each tower. These columns are linked with each floor’s four edges at the third-point locations. Such a placement allowed for each floor to have cantilevered corners, that were provided with windows by Louis Kahn. Pre-stressed concrete elements provide the towers with the support structure. Unlike the three laboratory towers that consist of intricate structures made of prefabricated elements and prominent windows, the central tower which has been kept for the service functions consists of fewer windows as well as a structure which is a made of cast in-situ concrete. “Kahn would use this signature austere architectural style of “served” and “servant” spaces: typically, singular buildings with centralized plans of Platonic shapes and/or biaxial symmetries” (Orozco 15). The design of the Richards Medical Research Laboratories reflected Louis Kahn’s articulation of the fundamental concepts of the served spaces and the servant spaces. The laboratories themselves serve as the served spaces whereas the shafts which have been independently structured for the purpose of ventilation as well as the stairways which are linked with the laboratory towers and the service towers on the outside are the servant spaces. The areas meant primarily for the scientists’ work were made distinctive from the areas for services, animal quarters, and stairs by means of the numbers placed on doors along the length of the corridor. Louis Kahn placed the service areas in separate structures inside the Richards Medical Research Laboratories. This enabled Louis Kahn to credit the services by providing them with the architectural presence of themselves and also removed obstructions from the interior of the laboratory towers to enhance them. Several young architects have gained inspiration from this concept. Particularly, Richard Rogers designed structures with service areas that were fully exposed externally. The Centre Georges Pompidou located in Paris and the Lloyd’s of London building are potential examples of this type of structures. The Kimbell Art Museum Louis Kahn designed the Kimbell Art Museum. It was established in 1972. Since then, it has been the mecca of modern architecture. Louis Kahn was commissioned as the architect of the Museum by the Kimbell Art Foundation’s Board of Directors in the year 1966. Kahn designed the Kimbell Art Museum with light as the main theme in his mind. The narrow plexiglass skylights over the cycloid barrel vaults allow the entry of natural light. Wing-shaped reflectors made with pierced-aluminum have been installed to diffuse the natural light to provide the smooth concrete at the surface of the vaults with a silvery gleam. This produces the effect of a subtle fluctuating glow best suited for the display of the works of art. There are three bays 100 foot each towards the west of the building. Each bay is fronted by an open portico. The bay at the central entrance is glazed and recessed. Although the Kimbell Art Museum lacks ornamental details and is thus modernistic in appeal, yet it contains the grand arches that have been derived from the Roman architecture. Materials principally used for the construction of the Kimbell Art Museum include white oak, travertine, and concrete. The Piano building acknowledges the Kahn building in terms of general plan, scale, and the concrete use as the fundamental building material. The Kimbell Art Museum consists of two main stairwells that have been located right opposite to each other. The audience gets an opportunity to witness the way the structure frames things besides itself like each stairway is framed by the other in addition to others that ascend or descend them. There are travertine tiles all across the interior of the Kimbell Art Museum which reflect the light in a subtle manner. The public can see two different sections of the Kimbell Art Museum simultaneously. There exists a symmetry which makes use of the same elements repeatedly so as to reinforce the basic idea. The simplicity of materials embodies Louis Kahn’s idea of relating the served-space with the servant-space. The subtle and unassuming travertine tiles surround all served-spaces including the areas of dining, gallery, sales, and gathering, thus making the people inside the Museum and all objects contained therein ever more worthwhile as compared to the walls themselves. On the other hand, plain grey concrete, aluminum fixtures, and brushed steel enclose the servant-space used for the plumbing, electricity, and air conditioning. The leisurely eye of the audience is drawn towards the served-spaces after it locates nothing worthy of attention in the servant spaces, and is thus immediately drawn to things and people that are there in the served-spaces. In addition to that, although the Kimbell Art Museum at first glance looks parted into halves by the vault all across its span, yet a careful consideration leads the audience to the impression that the museum projects half-vault and half-arch more than the whole. There are numerous evidences for this. Particularly the curved half-arches which conceal the lighting system reflect this idea very strongly. Generally, the public sees one wall at a time, though most of the exhibits are along the opposite arch’s long-walls. The half-arch sectioning of the vault seems consistent with the idea of almost-symmetry. The selection of materials in the storage space along the gift-shop is very gentle. The cut and grainy texture of the wood is very appealing to the eye, though it is generally very uninteresting otherwise. The wood reflects as well as diffuses the harsh afternoon light that pours in from the western courtyard. It builds its own monotony that tends to compliment that of the travertine tiles. The servant-space at this place is quite useful and unobtrusive. The eye almost completely dismisses it unless one pays a lot of attention towards it. The feature that first triggers the audience’s attention towards the half-arch rather than the full-arch is the cafe in the Museum’s northern half. The cafe’s eastern wall is an exhibit whereas its northern wall is an unimportant servant space which causes the audiences’ attention to divert towards the cafe’s western wall that overlooks the beauty of the courtyard in the north. The northern courtyard encapsulates a beautiful contrast of lines and curves. The curvaceous L’Air that is located over a severe stone-block reflects the contrasting theme of curves and lines. The window panes are counterbalanced by the arching trees. The space is separated and made easy to navigate by careful placement of various elements including the sculpture, the tables, the trees and the bushes. Louis Kahn’s excellence of the execution of servant-space can be witnessed outside the building just as good as inside. The electrical components allow the sunlight by moving along the rails through the top. The tendency of the trees’ branches to provide people with shade has been maximized by the use of cross-wires. There is a simple wire mesh which goes along the top of the arch to block the entry of things any larger than a sparrow. The western patio both separates the space and defines it. Benches have been placed alternately, at a distance from one another so as to allow different groups of people to talk in private among themselves along with have great views everywhere. There is a constant pleasing sound of falling water that is loud enough to dampen the conversations but is certainly not overpowering. The trees surrounding the lawn have been planted in such a manner that they totally obscure the surrounding structures. The magnificence of the Kimbell Art Museum has been appreciated frequently by critics. Heyer discusses the architectural excellence of the Kimbell Art Museum in his book in these words: “The Kimbell Art Museum by Louis Kahn is also a disciplined, coherent, and visually clear statement, but here the aesthetics derive from the more classically oriented sensiblity of its architect. It has an austere yet rich simplicity that comes from the repetition of a vaultlike form, given a dull sheen from its lead-covered exterior, and a beautifully articulated concrete structural frame with infill paneled walls of travertine. Its classic sense of timelessness is ennobled by a reverence for material and detail. Its interior form, bathed in a diffused natural light that enters the space via continuous interior suspended screen and reflected downward off the curve of the vault.” (Heyer 278-279). Conclusion Louis Kahn’s architecture has maximized the usability of the structures in that the serving spaces are intrinsically related with the structural elements. Ranging from the series of light wells installed in the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, to the open ceiling of the entry porch in the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, and the use of narrow pexiglass skylights in the Kimbell Art Museum, everything has been chosen and installed purposefully to maximize the usability, and aesthetic appeal for the public. Louis Kahn has taken the use of machines and tools to the apogee of architectonics, thus designing structures as composite of components that worked in mutual harmony. Not a single design proposed by Louis Kahn understates his expertise in making the best use of materials. An in-depth study and analysis of the architectural work of Louis Kahn suggests that he was ahead of his time, which is one reason why his work has a great influence on the contemporary architecture. Works Cited: Booher, Pierson W. “Louis I. Kahn’s fisher house: a case study on the architectural detail and design intent.” University of Pennsylvania. 2009. Web. 5 May 2012. . Heyer, Paul. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century. Canada: John Wiley and Sons, 1993. Print. Leslie, Stuart W. ““A Different Kind of Beauty”: Scienti?c and Architectural Style in I. M. Pei’s Mesa Laboratory and Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute.” n.d. Web. 5 May 2012. . Orozco, Eric. “Hurvat haMidrash—the Ruin of the Oracle.” 15 May 2004. Web. 5 May 2012. . “Richards Medical Center.” 2012. Web. 5 May 2012. . Scully, Vincent. “Louis I. Kahn and the Ruins of Rome.” Engineering and Science. 1993. Web. 5 May 2012. . Sylva, De. “Architecture as buildings free of servitude: an analysis of Louis I. Kahn's philosophy.” University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. 2011. Web. 4 May 2012. Read More