Friday, January 11, 2008

for the expression of method...

louis kahn, city tower (study of sunshades), 1953-57

"i believe that in architecture, as in all art, the artist instinctively keeps the marks which reveal how a thing was done. the feeling that our present day architecture needs embellishment stems from our tendency to fair joints out of sight, to conceal how parts are put together. structures should be devised which can harbor the mechanical needs of rooms and spaces. ceilings with structure furred in tend to erase scale. if we were to train ourselves to draw as we build, from the bottom up, when we do, stopping our pencil to make a mark at the joints of pouring or erecting, ornament would grow out of our love for the expression of method. it would follow that the pasting over the construction of lighting and acoustical material, the burrying of tortured unwanted ducts, conduits and pipelines, would become intolerable. the desire to express how it is done would filter through the entire society of building, to architect, engineer, builder and craftsman."

louis kahn, 1957, image: city tower (study of sunshades), 1953-57. both from visionary drawings of architecture and planning 20th century through the 1960's.

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