Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974)

A deluxe sleeved set that includes a facsimile republication of a classic work on Louis Kahn and an accompanying volume of new writings by colleagues, architects, and the Kahn family

The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn, originally published in 1962 and long out of print, was the first book on the architect to feature Kahn’s own images and words—and it was Kahn’s favorite book on his work. It includes his early sketches, reproduced at full size, from his European travels in the 1950s as well as renderings of the designs for several of his notable buildings, along with unpublished speeches and excerpts from lectures, radio broadcasts, and other sources.

In this magnificent sleeve-encased two-book set, a facsimile of the original publication is accompanied by an illustrated Reader’s Guide that features essays and commentary by writers such as scholar William Whitaker and Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Paul Goldberger, family members, and fellow architects such as Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, and Denise Scott Brown that contextualize the enormous impact and continuing legacy of one of the twentieth century’s most influential architects.

New writings from Richard Saul Wurman; William Whitaker (Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, Louis I. Kahn Collection); Louis Kahn’s three children—Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, and Alexandra Tyng; Larry Korman (owner of the Kahn Korman House); Jonathan Salk (son of Jonas Salk); Peter Reed (former Senior Deputy for Curatorial Affairs, Museum of Modern Art, NY); critic Paul Goldberger; architect and scholar Mark Gunderson; information architect Dan Klyn; and Jochen Eisenbrand (Chief Curator, Vitra Design Museum), among others.
Tributes from architects who have been winners of the Louis I. Kahn Award: David Adjaye, Tadao Ando, David Chipperfield, Peter Eisenman, Ted Flato, Norman Foster; Jeanne Gang, Frank Gehry, Nicholas Grimshaw, Steven Holl, Daniel Libeskind, Thom Mayne, Antoine Predock, Moshe Safdie, Denise Scott Brown, Robert A.M. Stern, Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, and Rafael Viñoly.
Numerous images (many previously unseen by the public) and additional archival material from the Louis I. Kahn Collection at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania and from Richard Saul Wurman’s personal collection.
Acknowledgments page including names of Kickstarter backers
Trade paperback with matte black covers, front cover stamped in silver with a detail of stylized trees from a Kahn sketch.… (meer)

I really like the large-format case studies that Phaidon published in the 1990s, almost as much as I like the cheaper triplets they collected into hardcover volumes, such as this one. If I could have only one of those titles, this would be the one, given the quality and importance of the buildings. By virtue, each case study is an important building, but the Bauhaus by Gropius, Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation and Louis I. Kahn's Salk Institute are three of the greatest pieces of architecture, three must-see modern buildings. Like the others 3s, the descriptions are thorough, the photographs beautiful, and the drawings helpful in understanding each building.… (meer)