Louis Kahn: The Eternal and the Circumstantial Event

Robert McCarter
HS 7 Schütte-Lihotzky
TU Wien, Karlsplatz 13, Hauptgebäude,
Hof 2, Stiege VII, EG

                    Introduction - Prof. Tina Gregoric

Louis Kahn: The Eternal and the Circumstantial

The lecture offers an extended overview of the life and architectural works of Louis I. Kahn, centered on his understanding that architecture which lasts is inspired by the eternal and determined by the circumstantial. The works of Kahn have arguably been the single greatest influence on world architecture during the last quarter of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st, demonstrating that a critically developed modern architecture is the only viable mode of construction for our time. Kahn’s work may be understood as redefining modern architecture in two fundamental ways: First, by re-establishing the foundational significance of ancient monuments, the rituals they housed, and the geometries that ordered them, for the design of contemporary institutions, Kahn’s work was critical both to the historical grounding of contemporary structures and to the emergence of an experiential interpretation of architecture, based upon a poetics of human action rather than functionally-rationalized programs. Second, by re-establishing the primacy of the art of construction in the design of contemporary buildings, Kahn was critical to the emergence of a “tectonic” interpretation of architecture, based upon construction traditions and innovations rather than stylistic form. At the mid-20th century, Kahn was one of few who found a way to overcome modern architecture’s perceived lack of direction and sense of purpose, a way he achieved by bringing modern architecture back to its ethical foundations, by reconnecting construction to its archaic origin in revelation, and by returning space-making to its fundamental beginning in experience.

Robert McCarter: Biography

Robert McCarter is a practicing architect, author, and Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis since 2007. He has previously taught at the University of Florida from 1991-2007, where he was founding Director of the School of Architecture; at Columbia University from 1986-1991; and at three other institutions. He has had his own architectural practice since 1982, in New York, Florida and St. Louis. McCarter is the author of twenty-one books, including Grafton Architects (2018); The Work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple: Economy as Ethic (2017); The Space Within: Interior Experience as the Origin of Architecture (2016); Marcel Breuer (2016); Steven Holl (2015); Aldo van Eyck (2015); Herman Hertzberger (2015); Local Architecture (with Brian MacKay-Lyons, 2015); Alvar Aalto (2014); Carlo Scarpa (2013); Understanding Architecture: A Primer on Architecture as Experience (with Juhani Pallasmaa, 2012); Wiel Arets: Autobiographical References (2012); Frank Lloyd Wright: Critical Lives (2006); Louis I. Kahn (2005); On and By Frank Lloyd Wright: A Primer on Architectural Principles (2005); William Morgan, Architect (2002); and Frank Lloyd Wright (1997). Among his awards and honors, McCarter was selected to participate in FREESPACE, the curated International Exhibition at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, in which he presented an exhibit titled, “Freespace in Place: Four Unrealized Modern Architectural Designs for Venice; Carlo Scarpa’s 1972 Quattro progetti per Venezia Revisited,” and he was named one of the “Ten Best Architecture Teachers in the US” in Architect magazine in December 2009.