Description

Kahn’s maxim that architecture is the art of creating spaces with light is evident in the Kimbell Art Museum building, which is considered a milestone in modern museum architecture, in a special way. In order to be able to present an exquisite private art collection under the southern sun of Texas in evenly lit rooms yet all the same in natural daylight (with the latter to have a mystic character, moreover), the architect developed a concrete shell structure of circular segments, with a skylight running down its entire length. In addition, the apex of the vaults is shielded by perforated, curved aluminium reflectors that transform the roof into a “natural source of light.” Logically, Kahn also makes the barrel vault turned thus into an ingeniously refined zenith light into the modulus for the complex, for the ground plan organisation of which he designed four versions. The building that was eventually built – which because of external conditions was to be only one storey high from the outside – consists of sixteen rectangular elements, each spanned with a barrel vault, each with a clear width of circa 30 x 7 meters. They are arranged in such a way that two blocks of six on the sides and a block of four between them cut out a central courtyard. The two outermost units on the garden side are developed as open loggias and thereby dovetail the building not only into its surroundings, but also create an almost Arcadian atmosphere through the harmonious effect of the carefully worked, lead-roofed concrete skeleton and the walls of yellowish travertine, with the fountains in the park. In the middle of the three-part symmetrical basic structure consisting of layers stacked up behind each other are the foyer, a symmetric stairway connecting to the lower floor that houses the service rooms, and an administrative zone. On the left, a room for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, and a café are linked to these, and on the right is the actual exhibition area, whose columnless spatial continuum is articulated not only by partition walls whose positions can be varied, but above all by the dominant modular vault structure. Three atria of different sizes and containing gardens punctuate the spatial flow and supplement the silvery light from above with a greenish lateral light. Plans for an extension were dismissed in 1990, because although they used the same design elements, they would have destroyed the subtle structural proportions of the building.

Nell E. Johnson, Light is the Theme. Fort Worth, 1975 • David M. Robb, Louis I. Kahn: Sketches for the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1978 A+U extra edition 11/1983, pp. 128-157 • Via 7/ 1984, pp. 76-85 (A. T. Seymour) • In Pursuit of Quality: The Kimbell Art Museum Fort Worth, New York 1989 • Patricia Cummings Loud, The Art Museums of Louis I. Kahn, Exhibition Catalogue, Durham/London, 1989, pp. 100-171 • Gioia Gattamorta, Louis I. Kahn: Kimbell Art Museum, Florence, 1991 • Michael Brawne, Kimbell Art Museum. Louis I Kahn, London, 1992 • Alexander Tzonis/Liane Lefaivre/Richard Diamond, Architecture in North America since 1960, London, 1995, pp. 148-151 • Louis I. Kahn. The Construction of the Kimbell Art Museum, Exhibition Catalogue, Mendrisio, 1997 • Klaus-Peter Gast, Louis I. Kahn. The Idea of Order, Basel, 1998, pp. 88-97 • Klaus Peter Gast, Louis I. Kahn, Basel, 1999, pp. 144-149 • Twentieth-Century Museums I, London 1999 (Michael Brawne)

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Originally published in: Paul von Naredi-Rainer, Museum Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.