Louis Kahn Accomplishments

Born February 20th, 1901, Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky, renamed to Louis Kahn, was born into a poor Jewish family. Kahn’s first experience with light was when he was three years old and he saw hot coals in the stove. He reached in and laid one on his apron; it caught fire and scarred his face. Kahn carried these scars for the rest of his life. In 1906, his family immigrated to the States. Kahn was a poor boy, making money by selling his drawing and playing the piano (Oxford). Kahn studied at the University of Pennsylvania in a Beaux-Arts tradition. He emphasized on drawing. After graduating, Kahn worked as a senior draftsman in the office of the City Architect John Molitor. Kahn was interested in Modernist works. He was interested in populist social agenda and new aesthetics of the European avant-gardes (Oxford).

Kahn founded his workshop in 1935. While continuing his own practice, he served as a design critic and professor. He taught at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. Kahn is known for his style that was colossus; his buildings are not very modest, exposing everything. He used simple materials saying, “I asked the brick, ‘What do you like brick?’ And the brick said, ‘I like an arch’” (Kahn, p 22). The weight of the buildings, all the materials, and the way they are assembled are considered monumental. The pure exposure of the materials and the design is completely open; demonstrating the exact ideas of the architect in every piece of work