ART/ARCHITECTURE - Louis Kahn

Could modern architects not learn to work with traditional materials while retaining the forms and the spirit of our own times? This is the question so beautifully answered by one of the greatest of all modernists, the American architect Louis Kahn.

FURTHER READING

“Kahn was born in Russia in 1901 and emigrated with his parents to the US at the age of 3. As a young man he studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, but his career truly blossomed in the 1950s after a trip to Rome led him to a new appreciation of the beauty of Roman architecture. Kahn’s major contribution to modern architecture was to include ancient elements in his work without losing the innovation and clarity of modernism. He reminded the Modernists that they could be in dialogue with their most illustrious predecessors…”

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Mad Adam Films

Title animation produced in collaboration with

Vale Productions

[justiniani]

Those videos devoted to specific Artists/Writers/Philosophers are easily my favorite

[IKEMENOsakaman]

Louis Kahn was the king of introverts. But he gave us introverts an important hint - if we use our talents in the right direction, we introverts can survive through this world, and reach greatness. Thank you, Mr. Kahn.

[vittorioconte]

Louis I Kahn was the man who designed the parliament building of Bangladesh 🇧🇩 where I'm living now. We love and respect him 💝.

[nc]

I’m just happy to hear Alain’s voice again ☺️. His voice is so soothing, it’s been awhile.

[thinclient]

Finally the voice I've been waiting for.

[fairdose]

I visited the National Assembly building in Dhaka as an 11 year old. At the time, I had no idea about Louis Kahn, I just thought they were really cool, awe-inspiring buildings. I didn’t realize the significance of Kahn and those buildings until I saw the Oscar-nominated documentary “My Architect” by Kahn’s son Nathaniel.

[GuitarMan]

The rare Architecture Series addition is always a treat. More please!

[NFAnisha]

This man went to a war-torn impoverished country in the 70s and stayed there for a while to design their national parliament building, a landmark that houses the sense of democracy of that country. I am Bangladeshi and I am eternally grateful for the parliament building he designed for us. No camera can capture the true beauty of the entire complex. The way Kahn integrated the waterbody, the natural light, the acoustics in the design- being inside the building transports you to a different world altogether. Thanks, maestro!

[pietervoogt]

The thing is, you see the beauty of these buildings only once you have been convinced that they are beautiful and accepted certain values, like that ornament is bad and minimalism is good. Also they work best as isolated statements surrounded by nature. These limits are a big problem. Because most of us like ornament and most of us live surrounded by many buildings, not in a remote modernist villa. And when you see it everywhere, the monotonous concrete is not serene anymore, it is just depressing. And no matter how much you tell us that we should feel different, we feel relieved when we leave a minimalist neighborhood and reach the rich and organic architecture of the 19th century or earlier.

[felipefva]

I absolutely love these videos about great thinkers and their fields, wish TSOL kept doing more of these

[simonhodgetts]

I love Kahn’s work - I only discovered him later in life - sadly he seems to often be overlooked - perhaps because of the unfashionable nature of some of his more brutalist works.

[musfiqurrahman]

We Bangladeshis are grateful to Kahn. And thank you, The School of Life. It's even more refreshing to hear Alain de Botton's voice again.

[legal]

i've missed these videos, they were my favorite kind

[Afadedbeing]

Video about art, discussing fusion of modern and ancestral, voiced by Alain himself - things do get better I guess. I'm glad you decided to voice this, after so long 😍

[nichootin]

really like the architecture series! would love one about carlo scarpa too!

[muhammadtanvir]

Our Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban or National Parliament House is so beautiful (Bangladesh 🇧🇩). The architect is Mr. Louis Kahn.

[SHIVAAAA]

Im so glad you all have started to make these videos again.

[Anarcath]

Nice to hear Alain’s voice again, even if I don’t really care that much about architecture.

[jonizajmi]

When Bangladesh was under attack from Pakistan during their war for independence, the pakistani air force didnt bomb the Dhaka parliment building - then under construction - since it seemed to them from above like the ruins of an ancient fortress. To think that if Kahn wasn't the author of that building things wouldve gone very different. His contribution wasnt just to architecture alone.

[rickrose]

I was a 21-year-old undergraduate when one of Kahn's last buildings opened to the public, the Yale Center for British Art, with galleries illuminated by sunlit atria (and retail space at street level). His modern Yale Art Gallery connected to OLD Street Hall, was one of the first building I frequented as a freshman. And my routine every day had me in buildings that had been designed by Eero Saarinen and Paul Rudolph -- cool, functional modernist stuff -- in addition to a lot of faux-revivalist stuff: Beaux Arts and American Collegiate Gothic. Then I would trundle off to lectures by Vincent Scully. It was an eye-opening trip, and I didn't have to mortgage my future to make it. I bussed tables and worked in record stores, and graduated without student debt. We hadn't yet fucked American youth by making education unaffordable.

Thank you, Republicans, for mortgaging an educated America to pander to greed and capitalism.