Monday, March 7, 2016

Quote for the Day

"The creation of art is not the fulfilment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven's Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it."

Louis Kahn (1901 – 1974) 


Louis Kahn was an American architect who, at the time of his death, was considered by some as "America's foremost living architect." An architect in private practice and a design critic, he was also a professor of architecture at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. Kahn created a style that was monumental and monolithic; his heavy buildings for the most part do not hide their weight, their materials, or the way they are assembled. With a style considered to be monumental beyond modernism, he is regarded as one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century.

The National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Kahn's last project, developed during 1962 to 1974. The Parliament building is the centerpiece of the national capital complex designed by Kahn that includes hostels, dining halls, and a hospital. According to Robert McCarter, author of Louis I. Kahn, "it is one of the twentieth century's greatest architectural monuments, and is without question Kahn's magnum opus."

“ . . . when you want to give something presence, you have to consult nature. And there is where Design comes in. And if you think of Brick, for instance, and you say to Brick, ‘What do you want Brick?’ And Brick says to you ‘I like an Arch.’ And if you say to Brick ‘Look, arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that?’ ‘Brick says:’...I like an Arch.’ “


1 comment:

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.