Abstract
This dissertation analyses Louis Kahn’s independent work until 1957 period in which he designed the Richards Medical Research Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania. The Richards Medical Research Laboratories marks the creator’s moment par excellence where he discovers the fundamentals that will become trademark of his work and influence as well the architecture of his time. In order to understand the genesis of the Richards Medical Research Laboratories and find the underlying substrates that originate the project I have traced an imaginary section-cut to the timeline until 1957. The present thesis approach comes from two moments: the immeasurable and measurable, that is, from the world of ideas to the world of tangible objects. And from these two moments this thesis tries to open another space for the unsayable to appear in order to comprehend the significance of the Richards Medical Research laboratories in Kahn’s work and in his time. Kahn’s creative process follows a path going from the incommensurable (the idea), to the measurable (the building), and goes back to the incommensurable (transcendence departing from the building). Accordingly this thesis is divided in two fundamental parts the first one titled “From the Incommensurable to the Measurable” and a second part titled “From the Measurable to the Incommensurable”. In the first part “From the Incommensurable to the Measurable” the thesis presents the relationships that builds Khan’s “imaginario” establishing connections between his ideas through Kahn’s own writings, professional relationships, trips, and the city and then relating these elements with the same period’s own and referential projects. In this first part of the thesis ideas are the real protagonists therefore texts takes over images. In the second part of the thesis “From the Measurable to the Incommensurable” the main topic centers on the Richard’s Laboratories and the Biology Laboratories. The focus of the second part will be Kahn’s Richard’s laboratories and earlier projects therefore the materiality of the architectural project becomes protagonist. In the Laboratories Kahn identifies, names, and makes clear the empty space as the organizer of architecture, structure, and installations. Through this empty space as organizer it is possible to individualize the service space with the same bluntness as the architectonic spaces through the use of monumental scale and showing how it works as if it were enormous industrial machinery. Departing from the Richards Medical Research Laboratories building Kahn discovered the fundamentals of his own work because through this building he could synthetize in a project the search of years of work and at the same time the architecture could sediment the legacy of history through his travels, relationship with his own time, and his own experience with the city. On the other hand the building works as a manifesto of Kahn’s architecture because with the Laboratories the architect sets the foundations of his work obliterating the legacy of modern architecture. Kahn will work on a solid architecture instead of a fine and diaphanous architecture offering a juxtaposition of walls and then carving them very carefully. Through this organization Kahn operates a series of almost sculptured wall opening in order to create light effect a light that will be sifted and filtered to convert it into a surreal light. The intention of this thesis is to analyze the different levels of the incommensurable and the measurable in its different approximations of the psyche to the matter and vice-versa in order to make them resonate in the incommensurable level which is the one of transcendence; a transcendence achieved through a building and its impact through time making the building itself the embodiment of Louis Kahn legacy to his time and the history of architecture.
