LOUIS KAHN’S

SALK INSTITUTE
PRE-MODERN INFLUENCES
IN KAHN’S WORK

JOSH MOLLMAN ARCHITECTURAL THEORIES + CONCEPTS AUTUMN 2014

 INTRODUCTION
THESIS
While widely considered one of the masters of Modern Architecture, Louis
Kahn’s Beaux-Arts training is reflected in works like the Salk Institute in La
Jolla, California, which features classical elements such as monumentality,
symmetry, and non-industrial materials like marble.

BACKGROUND
Louis Kahn was an American architect who created many famous works
from the 1930s through his death in 1974. Kahn’s work is often known for
its monumental and imposing character and his buildings’ clear geometries.

PHILOSOPHY
Kahn believed in monumentality, servant and served spaces, and measurabil-
ity versus immeasurability.

MONUMENTALITY
Kahn believed that architects “could – and should – produce buildings
which were as monumental and as spiritually inspiring as the ancient ru-
ins of Greece and Egypt” (“Louis Kahn,” n.d.).

SERVANT/SERVED SPACES
Kahn distinguished “served” spaces which were used for human func-
tions and “servant” spaces which contained mechanical considerations
such as stairwells and pipes.

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 INTRODUCTION
MEASURABILITY
He also conceived of the “immeasurable, the inspirational insight into the
nature of the institution, and the measurable, the means available to the
architect to build in his place and time” (McCarter 2005).

“He was capable of handling problems of large size without de-

generating into either an ‘additive’ approach or an overdone
grandiosity; he knew how to fuse together modern construc-
tional means with traditional methods; he was steeped in histo-
ry but rarely produced pastiche; and his architecture was infused
with a deep feeling for the meaning of human situations, which
enabled him to avoid the mere shape-making of the formalists.”
- William J. R. Curtis, 1996

VISUAL CHARACTERISTICS
Louis Kahn rejected the use of light materials like steel and glass that ap-
peared in many other Modern or International Style works in favor of heavi-
er materials like reinforced concrete and brick. Many of his buildings were
comprised of large, monolithic geometries to convey the sense of monu-
mentality he hoped to achieve. While most other Modern architects were
using balanced asymmetry in their floor plans, Kahn often utilized a more
classically influenced symmetrical plan for his designs, as seen in the Exeter
Library and the Salk Institute. According to Leslie, one can see Kahn’s “phil-
osophical appeals to such metaphysical values as light, silence, and order”
(2005).These appeals would appear as a complex skylight in the Kimbell Art
Museum or the contemplative courtyard in the Salk Institute.

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 CASE STUDY: SALK INSTITUTE
OVERVIEW
The Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies, built on a high coastal site
in La Jolla, California from 1959-1965, is considered by Wiseman to be the
“single image [that] conveys to the public what Louis Kahn accomplished
as an architect” (2007). The building was born of a collaboration between
Kahn and his client, Jonas Salk, a man with “a romantic vision of human
potential that matched his own” (Wiseman 2007). Kahn is even quoted as
saying “[Salk] listened to me more carefully than I did to myself” (Quoted
in Wiseman 2007).

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In regards to the function of the building, Salk required a hundred thousand

square feet, divided into ten equal laboratory spaces, but also added that
he “would like to be able to invite Picasso to the laboratories” (Quoted in
Wiseman 2007).The site offered beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean which
Kahn would keep in mind through the design process. The finished plan
consists of two buildings with five laboratory wings each, mirrored over a
central courtyard with a single water feature running its length.

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 CASE STUDY: SALK INSTITUTE
EXTERIOR
The foremost aspect of the exterior of the Salk Institute is its reinforced
concrete construction. Kahn was more than masterful in his use of concrete
for the institute, even experimenting with several types and mixtures before
settling on a final product. Special attention was paid to the board-form-
ing process and the forms the process left in the concrete. In contrast, the
less modern materials of marble and wood were used for the courtyard
and office screens, respectively.Viewing the North or South elevations, one
can see how the nearly symmetrical plan and repetition of five monolithic
rectilinear forms can evoke images of classical columns. The sheer size and
imposing forms evoke the monumental feel Kahn was intentionally trying to
express in his architecture. Additionally, the symmetry of the plan reflects
an embracing of certain pre-Modern ideas.

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The idea for the open plaza or “façade to the sky” actually came from Kahn’s
contemporary, Luis Barragan. This relationship of the plaza to the sky and
its magnificent view of the Pacific are often compared to the villas of Rome
or a Greek temple on the Aegean (Wiseman 2007). The very presence of
a space with no true function other than contemplation or enjoyment in
itself was very anti-Modern.
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 CASE STUDY: SALK INSTITUTE
INTERIOR
Perhaps the most non-Modern feature of Kahn’s interior of the Salk Insti-
tute is the use of warmer wood in contrast to the brutal concrete used on
the exterior.While most of the interior surfaces are also exposed concrete,
Kahn introduces Burmese teak wall screens and oak furnishings as a sort of
organic contrast to the man-made concrete material (Wiseman 2007).

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Kahn’s concept of servant and served space is “lent a new quality in the
Salk Institute” (Gast 2001). Not only are there service cores on the North
and South ends of the buildings to house stairs, restrooms, and the like, but
there are even entire floors dedicated to separating the mechanical consid-
erations of a building from the laboratory space.The way spaces are located
within the floor plan recalls the way Palladio’s Villa Rotunda used the same
rectangular form for every room. Kahn uses the same five service towers
and five study towers on the exterior and courtyard edges of the building,
respectively. He even places the lab spaces in the center in a similar way to
the round central area of the Villa Rotunda.

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 CASE STUDY: SALK INSTITUTE
WATER FEATURE
The water feature running the axis of the central plaza is one of the most
non-Modern elements of the Salk Institute. It serves no real function other
than to add a visual element to the courtyard. In some sense, it opposes the
modern rejection of ornamentation.

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Added to the central channel was a “sculptural cistern” at the west end of
the site (Wiseman 2007). The cascading pools of the cistern are thought
to be inspired by either the Mughal garden Kahn saw in India and Pakistan
or the Alhambra in Spain (Wiseman 2007). Either way, it is clear that there
are pre-Modern influences. Although at first sight there are striking modern
elements, like the use of rectilinear forms and slabs, the presence of traver-
tine marble and a water feature suggest Kahn’s pre-Modern influences. The
“sculptural cistern” also features its own use of hierarchy and monumen-
tality that one might find in a classical fountain. Additionally, it is completely
symmetrical, with the water channel dividing it into two equal halves.

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 CASE STUDY: SALK INSTITUTE
SUMMARY
While Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute appears at first sight to be a monument to Mod-
ernism, there are many underlying pre-Modern influences in its design that elevated
the building beyond the International Style of many buildings of the time. The use of
symmetry, monumentality, repetition of forms, and pre-Modern materials like wood
and marble is indicative of Kahn’s Beaux-Arts schooling.The table below outlines the
contrasting Modern and pre-Modern elements in the Salk Institute.
EXTERIOR INTERIOR FEATURE
• Glass, steel, exposed • Free plan • Rectilinear forms
concrete • Functional space • Lack of ornamenta-
• Rectilinear Forms planning tion
MODERN

• Lack of ornamenta- • Stark concrete

10 11 12

• Teak wall screens • Repetition of office • Travertine marble

• Symmetrical Plan forms construction
• Hierarchy in size of • Warm wood finish- • Hierarchy of pool
PRE-MODERN

cubic volumes ings and millwork forms

• Open courtyard • Water feature
serves no function

13 14 15

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 CONCLUSION
Louis Kahn combined new techniques and forms with pre-Modern elements to
acheive his monumental style, embracing of the forms and ideas of the past which
were rejected by most other Modern architects of the time to prove that the Inter-
national Style and pure European Modernism were not the only roads to fulfilling
the needs of a contemporary building. This work by Kahn and some and some of his
contemporaries would allow architects to move beyond the strict rules of European
Modernism and create new styles and forms.

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 REFERENCES
TEXT REFERENCES
Curtis, W. (1996). Modern Architecture Since 1900 (3rd ed.). London: Phaidon.
Gast, K. (2001). Louis I. Kahn: Das Gesamtwerk: Complete Works. München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
Leslie, T. (2005). Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science. New York: George Braziller.
Louis I. Kahn. (2014). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top-
ic/309690/Louis-I-Kahn
McCarter, R. (2005). Louis I. Kahn. London: Phaidon.
Salk Institute for Biological Studies. (n.d.). Salk Architecture. Retrieved October 14, 2014, from https://www.salk.
edu/about/architecture.html
Steele, J. (2002). Salk Institute: Louis I. Kahn. London: Phaidon Press.

Wiseman, C. (2007). Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style : A Life in Architecture. New York: W.W. Norton.

IMAGE REFERENCES
Title Image: Aprahamian, Peter. From Modern Architecture Since 1900 (p. 522) by William Curtis, 1996, London,
Phaidon.
1. Gast, Klaus-Peter. From Louis I. Kahn: Das Gesamtwerk: Complete Works (p. 91) by Klaus-Peter Gast, 2001,
München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
2. University of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. From Salk Institute: Louis I. Kahn (p. 7) by
James Steele, 2002, London, Phaidon.
3. Leslie, Thomas. From Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science (p. 147) by Thomas Leslie, 2005, New York,
George Braziller
4, 13. Gast, Klaus-Peter. From Louis I. Kahn: Das Gesamtwerk: Complete Works (p. 91) by Klaus-Peter Gast,
2001, München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
5, 6, 10, 14, 16-18. Steele, James. From Salk Institute: Louis I. Kahn (n.p.) by James Steele, 2002, London, Phaidon.
7. University of Pennsylvania. From Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style : A Life in Architecture (p. 121) by Car-
ter Wiseman, New York, W.W. Norton
8, 12. Gast, Klaus-Peter. From Louis I. Kahn: Das Gesamtwerk: Complete Works (p. 83) by Klaus-Peter Gast,
2001, München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
9, 15. Steele, James. From Salk Institute: Louis I. Kahn (n.p.) by James Steele, 2002, London, Phaidon.
11. Gast, Klaus-Peter. From Louis I. Kahn: Das Gesamtwerk: Complete Works (p. 90) by Klaus-Peter Gast, 2001,
München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
Concrete Headers and Footers: Gast, Klaus-Peter. From Louis I. Kahn: Das Gesamtwerk: Complete Works (p. 90)
by Klaus-Peter Gast, 2001, München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.