Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out

Like few others, Louis Kahn cultivated the craft of drawing as a means to architecture. His personal design drawings
seen either as a method of discovery or for themselves
are unique in the twentieth century. Over two hundred
mostly unpublished
drawings by Kahn and his associates are woven together with a lively and informed commentary into an intimate biography of an architectural idea. Unfolding around the iconic project for the Dominican Motherhouse (1965
69) the drawings form a narrative which not only reveals the richness and hidden dimensions of this unbuilt masterpiece, but provides compelling insights into Louis Kahn’s mature culture of designing. Kahn
long considered an architects’ architect

emerges as a vivid and instructive guide, provoking reflection on questions which continue to remain relevant: on how works are conceived, on how they might be perceived, on how they become part of human experience. Fascinating not only in their beauty, the drawings open a new and stimulating perspective on one of the past century’s great architects. AUTHOR: Michael Merrill, Dr.-Ing., is a practicing architect in the USA and Germany and assistant professor for Architectural Design at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
233 illustrations