There is ample evidence as to how the modern masters, in their shared pursuit of formal inventions and constructional inventions, variously referred to past examples they had freely chosen as guides that could inspire and support them in their strenuous pursuit of new things. The buildings shaped like soft clouds and gelatinous bowels, or the spiked bravura pieces designed by today's fashionable architects have no relation with either construction or history. Louis Kahn, instead, kept form, structure and history paradigmatically together. The book systematically reviews the intense structural experimentation that, in terms not just of building engineering but of spatial and representational potential, marked Kahn's work since the beginning and would eventually lead him, after a long apprenticeship, to an almost constant adoption of 'hollow' structural forms. By reviewing this long and intense journey of research, the book underlines how Louis Kahn, in each work and based on a constant dialogue between structural innovation, building tradition and figural evocation, succeeded in awakening our interest in a new 'fascinating' structure and at the same time our emotion for a deeply meaningful, universal and timeless form.

 

(Adriano Cornoldi)

Francesco Cacciatore
The wall as living place
Hollow structural forms in Louis Kahn's work

Available in ebook version

isbn 9788862422031
current edition 10 / 2016
first edition 10 / 2016
language English
size 15x21cm
pages 120
print b&w
binding paperback
copertina download
the author
Francesco Cacciatore (1975) is Associate Professor in Architectural and Urban Composition at the IUAV University in Venice (DACC). From 2006 to 2014 he worked as an architect and founding member of the associated firm Ateliermap.  His teaching activity includes visiting p...

Francesco Cacciatore (1975) is Associate Professor in Architectural and Urban Composition at the IUAV University in Venice (DACC). From 2006 to 2014 he worked as an architect and founding member of the associated firm Ateliermap. 

His teaching activity includes visiting professor terms in the context of workshops and design seminars both in Italy and abroad. He has authored several books including: Il muro come contenitore di luoghi. Forme strutturali cave nell’opera di Louis Kahn (LetteraVentidue 2008-2011), Abitare il limite. Dodici case di Aires Mateus & Associados (LetteraVentidue 2009-2011), the essay L’animale e la conchiglia. L’architettura di Aires Mateus come dimora del vuoto (Mondadori Electa 2011), Barclay&Crousse. Segnali di vita tra i due deserti (LetteraVentidue 2012), Il vuoto condiviso. Spazialità complesse nelle residenze contemporanee (Marsilio 2016).

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