Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture

Architect Louis Kahn discovered late in life how to transform the ruins of ancient Rome into modern buildings. His pursuit of an ideal geometric order was informed by a keen sense of history. Based on platonic shapes, his buildings, at once monumental and human in scale, marked the end of the international style and opened the way for a revival of vernacular and classical traditions. These themes are documented in a lavishly illustrated retrospective survey which accompanies a traveling exhibition. Brownlee, associate professor of art history, and DeLong, professor of architecture, both at the University of Pennsylvania, track Kahn’s prodigious career in intimate essays followed by a 160-page pictorial section analyzing 14 key projects. Simultaneously Rizzoli is also publishing Louis I. Kahn: Writings, Lectures, Interviews , edited by Alessandra Latour, which includes Kahn’s essays, philosophical meditations and free-verse poems, and The Paintings and Sketches of Louis I. Kahn , by Jan Hochstim