* LOUIS I. KAHN – Ordine si Forma

Activ ca arhitect inca din perioada anilor 1920, Louis Kahn si-a concentrat atentia, in perioada grea ce a urmat Marii Crize si celui de-al doilea razboi mondial, mai ales asupra studiilor de urbanism si proiectelor pentru locuinte ieftine.

Dupa 1945, incepuse activitatea didactica la Yale Univesity, in paralel cu sustinerea biroului de arhitectura din Philadelphia. Pentru o perioada de cativa ani a fost influentat de cercurile arhitecturale internationale de pe coasta de est a Americii. In partea a doua a anilor ’50, se pare insa ca si-a regasit propria cale.

Ruptura cu normele modernismului international avea sa devina intrutotul manifesta odata cu proiectul sau pentru Richards Medical Center, Philadelphia (1957-61), insa scurtul eseu „Ordine si Forma” publicat in revista studenteasca Perspecta, la Yale University, cu cativa ani inainte anunta deja orientarea sa de mai tarziu si cateva dintre ideile centrale ale gandirii sale.

La acea vreme era influentat de Bukminster Fuller si Pier Luigi Nervi, dar precuparea sa pentru ordine ne aduce aminte totodata de asa-numitul spirit „empiricist” din Scandinavia – in special prin respingerea notiunii abstracte de „spatiu” in favoarea celui de „loc”, termen cu un inteles mai pronuntat fenomenologic.

ORDER AND FORM

Order is

Design is form-making in order

Form emerges out of a system of construction

Growth is a construction

In order is creative force

In design is the means – where    with what    when    with how much

The nature of space reflects what it wants to be

Is the auditorium a Stradavarius

or is it an ear

Is the auditorium a creative instrument

keyed to Bach or Bartok

played by the conductor

or is it a convention hall

in the nature of space is the spirit and the will to exist a certain way

Design must closely follow that will

Therefore a stripe painted horse is not a zebra.

Before a railroad station is a building

it wants to be a street

it grows out of the needs of street

out of the order of movement

A meeting of contours englazed.

Thru the nature – why

Thru the order – what

Thru design – how

A Form emerges from the structural elements inherent in the form.

A dome is not conceived when questions arise how to build it.

Nervi grows an arch

Fuller grows a dome

Mozart’s compositions are designs

They are exercises of order — intuitive

Design encourages more designs

Designs derive their imagery from order

Imagery is the memory — the Form

Style is an adopted order

The same order created the elephant and created man

They are different designs

Begun from different aspirations

Shaped from different circumstances

Order does not imply Beauty

The same order created the dwarf and Adonis

Design is not making Beauty

Beauty emerges from selection

affinities

integration

love

Art is a form making life in order — psychic

Order is intangible

It is a level of creative consciousness

forever becoming higher in level

The higher the order the more diversity in design

Order supports integration

From what the space wants to be the unfamiliar may be revealed to the architect.

From order he will derive creative force and power of self criticism

to give form to this unfamiliar.

Beauty will evolve

Ilustratii: Louis I.Kahn
Atiyo Sanghad Bhaban Bangladesh