Michael Merrill (ed.)

Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing

"The importance of a drawing is immense, because it’s the architect’s language." — Louis Kahn to his masterclass, 1967

Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974) was one of the most significant architects of the twentieth century and his influence is present today in ways both profound and subtle. Unlike previous publications on Kahn, which have focused on his built work and which considered the drawings foremost as illustrations of these, this is the first in-depth study of drawings as primary sources of insight into Kahn’s architecture and creative imagination.

By offering a spectrum of close readings of drawings by Kahn and his associates in a series of incisive and richly illustrated essays, this book is at once an intimate artistic portrait of this important architect and a provocative and timely contribution to the current discourse on representation in architecture. For architects and students of architecture, Kahn’s lasting significance is not only in the buildings he built, but in how he designed them.

Based on unprecedented archival research, engagingly presented by a group of eminent scholars and architects, and lavishly illustrated with over 900 highest quality reproductions, The Importance of a Drawing is destined to become a standard work in the literature on Louis Kahn.

"The importance of a drawing is immense, because it’s the architect’s language." — Louis Kahn to his masterclass, 1967

Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974) was one of the most significant architects of the twentieth century and his influence is present today in ways both profound and subtle. Unlike previous publications on Kahn, which have focused on his built work and which considered the drawings foremost as illustrations of these, this is the first in-depth study of drawings as primary sources of insight into Kahn’s architecture and creative imagination.

By offering a spectrum of close readings of drawings by Kahn and his associates in a series of incisive and richly illustrated essays, this book is at once an intimate artistic portrait of this important architect and a provocative and timely contribution to the current discourse on representation in architecture. For architects and students of architecture, Kahn’s lasting significance is not only in the buildings he built, but in how he designed them.

Based on unprecedented archival research, engagingly presented by a group of eminent scholars and architects, and lavishly illustrated with over 900 highest quality reproductions, The Importance of a Drawing is destined to become a standard work in the literature on Louis Kahn.


this book fills a void and does it in a way that should please any fan of Kahn.
Archidose

  • "a lavish, 500-plus-page book... both a deep examination of Kahn’s creative process, as told through the medium of the hand drawing, as well as a revealing portrait of the man behind those buildings and illustrations." 
  • Common Edge
  •  

stands as a forceful argument for the importance of printed books – for architects, teachers, and above all for students.”
Drawing Matter

“This book is not only visually beautiful, but has a trove of insights into the creative process of design.”
Rhapsody in Books

 


Edited by Michael Merrill

With contributions by Michael Benedikt, Michael Cadwell, David Leatherbarrow, Louis Kahn, Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, Michael J. Lewis, Robert McCarter, Michael Merrill, Marshall Meyers, Jane Murphy, Gina Pollara, Harriet Pattison, Colin Rowe, David Van Zanten, Richard Wesley, William Whitaker

Design: Integral Lars Müller

24 × 30 cm, 9 ½ × 11 ¾ in

512 pages, 919 illustrations

hardback

2021, 978-3-03778-644-4, English
CHF 90.00

Louis I. Kahn

Born in Estonia, Louis Kahn (1901–1974) emigrated with his family to Philadelphia when he was four years old. Kahn received Beaux-Arts training at the University of Pennsylvania, under the French-educated Paul Philippe Cret, and then adopted his own idiosyncratic modernism, which would engender the heterogeneous “Philadelphia school.” It wasn’t until 1950–51 when, as an American Academy fellow, he traveled in Italy, Greece, and Egypt that he developed his own singular philosophy of architecture. In 1951 he attained his first major commission to design Yale University’s Art Gallery, and upon its completion gained instant national recognition before going on to do international commissions a decade later. He developed a signature style that was monumental, monolithic and transparent in its functionality. Kahn was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 1971 and the RIBA Gold Medal in 1972.

Michael Merrill

Michael Merrill is an award-winning architect and educator. He taught architectural design and theory at the Technical Universities at Karlsruhe and Darmstadt and has served as the director of research at the institute for building typology at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) since 2017. Michael Merrill is the author of three books on Louis Kahn: "Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out”, "Louis Kahn: On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces” and “Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing".