FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE

AND PLANNING AKTU

,LUCKNOW
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN –IV
RAR-401

CRITICAL
By:-
REVIEW OF AN
TUSHAR SHARMA ARCHITECTURAL
BARCH IInd YEAR ‘B’
2019-2020 PROJECT
1805181068
Norman
fisher’s
house
Louis I. kahn
Content:-
 Project Basic Details
• Building:- Norman fisher’s house
• Place:- Hatboro, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
• Architect :-Louis I. kahn
• Type of building:- residence
• Built in:- 1960-1967

Louis I . Kahn at site : norman fisher’s house

 Abstract
• Preservation of structures begun to
experience style and future use.
• Modernist structures , simplistic in form
and function,
• contain a high degree of embedded
meaning and significance.
• Kahn’s use of traditional forms
• maintain their ‘trueness to Form’.
• Kahn was not recycling traditionalism
Rear view of
• Retranslating ‘known’ forms in assembly norman fishers
and aesthetics to convey a certain aura. house
About the architect
• Louis Isidore Kahn was born on February 20, 1901 on the Island
of Saaremaa, Estonia to Leopold and Bertha Mendelsohn.
Ar. Louis I . kahn
• Louis Isadore Kahn was an American architect based in
Philadelphia.
• he was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at
the University of Pennsylvania.
• Kahn created a style that was monumental and monolithic .
• Louis Kahn's works are considered as monumental beyond
modernism.
• Famous for his meticulously built works.
“I always
begin
with
squares”

Louis I .
kahn
About the client
• Client name :- Doctor Norman Fisher
and his wife Doris
• Due to post-war, neo-traditional
housing, the neighborhood appear
disjointed from the Fisher’s house.
• Several different schemes proposed
before Kahn and the Fishers were both
satisfied.
• If small thing needed to be changed, Dr. Norman fisher and wife
Doris fisher in the living room
Kahn would start over with the design. cube
About the project

• Budget:- $45,000 Fishers planned.

• The challenge was to incorporate
family life with a doctor’s office .
• Time taken to complete the project is
7 years .
• Demonstrating the importance of
each element’s move the fireplace or Model of norman
fisher’s house
remove a window and you alter the
character of the space.
 The first to the last scheme
• The two separate square volumes are
apparent.
• The circulation is mostly vertical and
separated within each volume. Scheme -1

• Large stone fireplace, which would

separate the living area and dining
area.
• Incorporating a circle in square motif.

Scheme-2
 Scheme-3 Scheme-4 Scheme-5

• In Dacca, Bangladesh working on the Capitol Complex, Kahn discovered the

idea of two cubes intersecting at an angle.
•  His initial plan called for one volume to be masonry and the other to be wood.
• the final plan is a masonry foundation and plinth with the two wooden cubes
resting on top.
conept Cube -1

 two cubes
1. one for the living room
2. other for the bedrooms, which
touch at an angle as if by chance,
like dice thrown on a table.
 In reality, they are not perfect
cubes
 the “cube” of the living room is not
even square in floor, but they are
close enough to be perceived as
such.
Cube -2
Description
Windows
• The complex aspect of the façade
is disposition of the windows.
• Vast glass surfaces, juxtaposed
with deep apertures which
contain smaller windows.

Smaller windows
• The living room faces North
and toward the river,
through an corner window.
• Smaller windows located in
the North-East and South-
East façades balance the
light and help to soften the
glare, allowing the
occasional entry of
afternoon sun rays.
Dining table facing river
• Dual cubic volumes, stone
foundation and detailed cypress
cladding,
• A simple geometry, allowing the
cubes to provide a separation of
public and private space.
• The wood is meticulously crafted
with deep window pockets
• Built-in cabinets, tables and
seating .
Built in seating
Architectural
drawings
Plan and section :-
The building is based on tripartite cubic composition.
• The ensemble is made of independent individual volumes not develop from
additive or grid structures,
• The wall thickness of a definite dimension in the two volumes .
• These two main volumes are connected at a corner
• With the entry hall acting as a transitional element between volumes
• This resulting in a juxtaposition of the two cubes at a 45 degree angle.
• The sleeping cube measures 25 feet 6 inches by 25 feet 6 inches and
is sited at a 45-degree angle to the street.
• This volume contains the main entrance and recessed porch area,
bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets.
• The living cube measures 28 feet 6 inches by 23 feet 6 inches and sits
slightly to the north of the sleeping cube.
 Ground Stone fire place
floor plan

Ground floor
Back
plan
elevation

Rear
view
• Inspired by the orientation of the mosque at the Capitol Complex, joining the mosque and the assembly.
• A third cube, considerably smaller than the two cubes,
• Is the independent cube that situated next to the garden area.
• It contains the technical equipment, which is the service and storage area.
• This volume is an open area with eighteen-foot-high ceilings broken into living, dining, and kitchen areas.
• From the rear, the house is three stories, rising thirty-five feet in height,
 Elevation

• From the elevation, the main building material was the wood and masonry.
• The wood for the Fisher House is the cypress wood
• because in Pennsylvania, it was cheaper ,
• its colour quality advantage of “standing” well, without either shrinking or swelling.
• the quarry stone is used as stone foundation .
• the house is set on top of its platform,
• the site sloped down to a river and requirement for basement storage.
Studying the Environment
& Micro-Climate: 
 Climate
• Location : Hatbaro, Pennyslyvania, USA
• Geographical location : (40.16704559326172, -75.10832977294922) /
40°10'1"N   75°6'30"W
• Climate : Warmest month- July avg.max. temp- 83.7 deg Fahrenheit,
coldest month- February avg. min. temp
-16.9 deg. Fahrenheit.
• During summer, the temperature variations between night and day reach 20
degrees Fahrenheit,
• during winter average difference of 16 degrees .
• The annual average precipitation is 52.74 inches.
• The wettest month of the year is April with an average rainfall of 11 inches.
• The climate makes Hatbaro, Pennyslyvania a good place to live in the terms
of weather.
Siting
• The Fisher House is located on the outskirt of Hatboro, Pennsylvania State, USA
• It is residential suburb with idyllic greenery and tall century old trees.
• The Fisher House is sited along the top ridge of a slight hill.
• Topography:- terrains sloping hill.
• Orientation:- facing north-east towards a river and the woods behind it.
• the living quarters to face the northeast so that the view of the woods could be framed in the
double height window.
• Its entry faces the street and is much more closed on this side.
• They are referred to as the "living" cube and the "sleeping" cube.
• The south corner of the living cube connects with the north face of the sleeping cube along a
north-south axis.
• It is bounded on the south-west side by the rural road.
Site layout plan

Site section
Surrounding :-water body

• At the rear of the house lies a small wood and a creek runs along at
the bottom of the hill.
• Vincent River is near the norman fisher’s house and one can seen the
beautiful views from the inside the house.

Cypress wood
bridge
Designed Landscape Setting
:-trees
• the area surrounding the house had been landscaped,
• grass had been planted
• the driveway had been laid, front and back flagstone
terraces had been put in place.
• The driveway is of crushed stone .
• This walkway wraps around the north side ofthe house to
the secondary entrance off the kitchen.
• From this entrance there are seventeen steps leading down
the sloped terrain towards the rear flagstone terrace .
• original trees include large Kentucky coffee tree just to the
southeast of the driveway and the Norway spruce just to the
northwest.
• Additionally, there is a large ash tree just to the northeast of
the spruce as well as two maples in the backyard.

Rear terrace view

• Doris Fisher added white European birches along the southern
edge of the sleeping cube
• Cryptomeria and river birches planted in the backyard, along
the edge of the creek.
• The wooded area across the creek includes large deciduous
and evergreen trees,
• undergrowth that includes bamboo planted recently by Dr.
Fisher.
• the site was augmented in 1983 by landscape architect
Rodney Robinson
• maintained all existing landscape features and added
elements to alleviate the runoff of debris onto the front and
rear terraces.
• flagstone was added to the border of the walkway at the main
entrance to enlarge and reshape the area

View of trees from the inner

corridor on the first floor .
Studying The Materials
And Construction:
 Material
• The foundation of stone in a traditional style of
building.
• The stone foundation due to placement on a slope .
• The exterior and interior of home are made from
cedar wood
• sourced from the local Pennsylvania area.
• This was done to keep down costs.
• Main Building Materials : Cypress wood, quarry stone.
• This original plasterwork is rough, with an uneven
texture that gives the interior .
• a plastic trowel that gave the intended rough texture
Quarry stone
foundation
Structure
Joints of the
• The house stands on a platform,
Cypress wood
• built with a lattice of wooden pillars. on the
• To adapt to the slight inclination of the terrain, exterior .
house of a stone base that compensates for the
change of slope
• offers a lower level overlooking the garden.
• The foundation is constructed of
"Montgomeryville" stone, a locally-quarried
regional limestone, with a cement-lime mortar.
• Because of the sloping house site, the stone
foundation is most visible from the rear of the
house .
Structural Organization
• The Fisher House is composed of a pair of two-story,
• cypress-clad cubic volumes connected at a fortyfive degree angle,
• each volume serving different functions.
• a one-story stone foundation supporting the two-story wooden
house structure
• The bottom level under the living cube serves as a full basement
as mechanical spaces, a laundry, and storage.
• A workroom is located in the excavated area under the sleeping
cube
• The utility shed is positioned five feet from the west elevation of
the living cube and its design echoes the form and materiality of
the house.
Quarry stone foundation
• A detail drawing of piers in the creek with a notation "Existing
piers for future wood bridge with Vincent River on the design of
the bridge .
Identifying The Form
And Function: 
• The Fisher House uses form to separate the different
programmatic uses of a home.
• The public and private are divided between two distinct
two story nearly cubic volumes.
• The private volume is aligned along the north south axis
• the public, which is rotated exactly 45 degrees, is aligned
along a northeast southwest line which runs parallel to the
driveway.
• The public volume intersects the north face of the private
with its southeast corner.
• The public space, which is perfectly square in plan, holds
the entrance corridor .
• The second volume is slightly off square, having a
rectangular plan . Function of the
house
• the living, dining and kitchen space in a double height room.
• Throughout the house there are deeply recessed windows.
• These allow light in during winter and keep out direct light in summer.
• also allows them to be opened during storms without allowing rain to
come into the house.
• There is a large stone hearth just off center in the living cube
• separating the living room and the kitchen area, but the kitchen still
opens more to the public realm .
• The decision to create two distinct volumes was driven by the original
dual design requirement of home and physician’s office.
• Though the office was dropped, the two volumes remain and serve
well the need for privacy in a home.
• The function of each space is distinguished through the influx of
natural light, evidenced by Kahn’s distinction between the bedroom as
a “little house within a house” and the living room as a place where Form of the house
people congregate.
 Establishing The
Hierarchy Of Spaces:
• Packages public and private spaces tightly into their respective cubes
• Places them at an aggressive angle to each other.
• The two volumes are equal in height and when viewed from the
exterior neither volume is given hierarchy over the other
Fisher House Exterior
• two cubic volumes, one situated at an angle of 45° to the other,
•
• two connected cypress-clad cubic volumes on stone foundation.
• honey-colored wood is long lasting
• strong and is similar to cedar or redwood in its
• ability to withstand insects and weathering.
• Beneath many of the large windows
• smooth surface and meticulous joinery, the woodwork on the exterior.
• the foundation forms a one-story base pierced by a pair of inset openings that lead to the basement
• two openings and the stone basement wall is a shallow,
• covered alcove that envelopes a portion of the base of the monumental chimney.
• Set within the base of the chimney is a built-in outdoor barbecue grill
• The main entrance is inset into the west elevation of the sleeping cube.
• to the right of the entry door, a small window offers a view of the stair hall oak balustrade.
• outside the main entry door, an oak-framed screen door is the initial point of entry.
• a large square window set in the top portion of the oak entry door,
• A secondary entrance, leading into the kitchen
• accessed through northwest elevation of the
living cube .
• The doors throughout the house are all flush on
one side .
• exterior doors are flush to the outside so that rain
will run down the face .
• a series of large windows flush to the interior and
narrow vertical deeply-inset window units.
• windows face street and neighboring houses .
• designed with narrow apertures provide privacy
and exhibit monumentality.
Fisher House interior:-
• Living room

• the living room is located in a separate block .

•  Kahn wanted each space, or room, to have its own form.
• orthogonally is the living room’s stone chimney , mirrors the 45° angle of the adjacent cube
• The interior organized around two distinct cubic volumes connect at a fortyfive degree angle.
• The living cube is an open space with eighteen-foot-high ceilings,
• a semi-circular limestone chimney and hearth, a built-in window seat,
• The sleeping cube is two stories in height
• the ground story an entry hall l, the master bedroom and bathroom, bedroom closets, powder room, storage closet, and stair hall
• The second floor contains a bathroom, two bedrooms, a small guest bedroom, and a walk-in closet
• The basement runs beneath both cubes of the house accessed from an interior stairwell of kitchen or from the rear terrace of the house .
• All of the interior walls are finished in an unpainted, off-white plaster.
• the walls unpainted so that the unique textural quality was left intact.
• cypress and red oak for the interior millwork
• its sturdiness and durability, used red oak where people would touch and interact .
• He used cypress for the interior doors, windows, trim, and baseboards .
Bedroom:-

• The entry hall runs along an east-west axis for the length of the sleeping cube
• An oak staircase leading to the second story is located in small staire hall .
• There are three deeply-inset window units in themaster bedroom, one oriented to the
south and the other two toward the east
• The east wall of the master bedroom looks out onto the wooded backyard area
• The staircase is constructed entirely of oak millwork.
• The staircase is adjacent to the west entry porch
• features a small window on the first landing provides natural light to the stair hall.
• small bedroom has two deeply-inset window from the south and the west.
• the two-floor block intended for the bedrooms,
• each of the spaces is complete and coherent
• . For example, the two bedrooms on the upper floor facing East are (almost)
perfectly square, Windows in the
• each being a quarter of the square of the floor, or an eighth of the larger bed room
cube.
• The house also has a vestibule in the main entranceway,
• two bathrooms (one on each floor), a toilet, dressing room and basement-
storeroom.
kitchen

• the kitchen having its own form: a cube within

another cube.
• The kitchen is located behind two eight-foot-high
partition walls from the living cube's southwest wall.
• On the northwest wall of the living cube is a rectilinear
"breakfast table" deeply-inset window above.
• In the west corner of the living cube, is a pantry closet
with built-in shelving.
• The secondary entrance to the house is also located in
this west corner and leads from the kitchen .
• Opposite this west entrance door, leading to the
basement staircase.
• the basement's functions are mechanical , the laundry, Partition wall kitchen
storage, and a workshop space. divides the kitchen
to the living room
The facade
• use of cypress wood emphasizes the geometrical
• The large windows, window bays and the
vertical slits on the façade create the impression
of depth
• massiveness of the walls,
• the façade appeared roughed out to resemble its
final form .
• the house seems to be “like a piece of furniture”. The rear facade
• motifs of traditional American building methods
– concealed wood-stud framing.
• space and light was one and the same thing,
• without light, the space does not exist.
• the living room has an elaborate corner window to look out north over
the riverscape;
• smaller window in the north-west and south-west walls to soften the
glare
• and allow occasional shafts of afternoon and evening sunlight; whereas
• the dining room has a single large window look out at pictorial
backyard.
The roof
• a flat roof, which to maintain the cubical form of the building.
• another factor that affects the design of the roof was the local climate.
• The warmest month on July, max 29 degree Celsius,
• the coldest month is on February max of -9 degree Celsius.
• higher exposed surface area compare to the pitched roof,
• the flat is able to receive more direct solar radiation.
• the house warm in the summer time and not so chill during the winter
time.
• the annual rainfall average would be 52.74 inches .
The floor
• the homogeneous material:
wood as the flooring
material.
• The texture, the grain and
the colour on the timber
flooring make the space an
antique or vintage look.
• the wood has the inherent
quality of insulation and
will remains warm under
the feet. Wooden flooring
 fenestation
• Pennsylvania is cold in the winter and warm in the summer, double
windows in the house.
• Double windows allow sunlight into the house in the winter when it is
low on the horizon
• keeps it out in the summer when the sun is higher in the sky.
• allows for passive solar energy transfer in the winter but reduced
transfer in the summer.
• folding windows envelope to provide new habitable space on both the
interior and exterior
• Throughout the house there are deeply recessed windows.
• deep recession allows to opened during storms without allowing rain
to come
• The windows are made up of six-by-six-inch jambs and four-by-six-inch
headers of cypress,
• The windows required prefabrication
• The bedroom windows on the south and west elevations of the
sleeping cube are narrow vertical deeply-inset windows.

Windows from the

• The narrow windows in the bedrooms allows light to enter ,
preserving the inhabitants' privacy.
• regulating natural light,
• allow for cross ventilation
• connect with nature from inside the house. Door and window of the
• doors are custom-designed millwork, including the direction of the master bed room
wood grain .
• the exterior doors, the interior doors are all flush on one side .
• the facade too austere with its narrow slit windows .
• Nor is there even a lamp or rain guard over the entrance door .
• sized apertures to regulate daylight penetration,
• creating a conversation between the inhabitant and nature.
Deep window to maintain
the privacy
THE FIREPLACE
• From local stone created a fireplace
that unites function, symbol, tectonics,
and myth

• It has an anthropomorphic quality

which echoes the shape of a human
torso.
• The fireplace might represent "the
presence of a man," .
• stone fireplace like ancient
monument .
Fire place made of
stone in the living cube
 conclusion

• the Fisher House has achieved the goal of the design which is to
create a contemporary yet traditional space for the Fishers.
• The position of the two cubes has become the focal point of the
building,
• the geometry is found to make space naturally, to gives .
• The lighting, the flooring, the façade seem to blend in harmoniously.
• The house defines modernist idea of a design fabric extending into
the landscape .
significance

• Kahn sought a sense of monumentality

• uses the stone plinth to create a sense of
timelessness.
• In plinth created a piece of archeology.
• The woodwork creates the sense of
warmth and tradition to starkly modern
design.
 Ending

• Kahn noted, “The tall room, the low room, the one with the fireplace,
and the one without, become a great event in your mind and you
begin to think, not of the requirements but of the nature of the
architectural elements that you can employ to make the environment
a place where it is good to learn or good to live or good to work.”
• use of traditional forms in order to maintain their ‘trueness to Form’.
• Kahn was not merely recycling traditionalism, but rather retranslating
‘known’ forms – in both assembly and aesthetics – in order to convey
a certain aura.
• This sense of humanity – the ‘Form’ – enabled Kahn to retranslate
traditional millwork .
Thank you