Perceiving light + space the kahn way
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about perceiving light + space the kahn way
Project • By DBL Architectes urbanistes • Individual Buildings
Library/Cinemas in Lons le Saunier
The existing buildings: the church, the Hotel de Balay and the wall of the prison form an impressive urban setting made up of simple lines, great mineral surfaces and imposing masses. Unfortunately, the relation that these three constructions maintain cannot be experienced from the street.
Obviously, a fourth element is needed on the north side to complete the urban structure.
The missing element is the library/cinemas.
The new building has the courtesy to curve itself in order to spare a public place that opens on the street. An urban respiration is created which is welcome in a very dense built context.
Like its neighbours, the lines of the new building are simple, its matter is mineral (concrete) and its presence is state... More
Project • By Francisco Mangado • Concert Halls
MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM OF TEULADA
Teulada-Moraira is an unusual urban center. Although it is divided into two separate physical units, Teulada and Moraira, these belong to a single administrative entity. Located in Alicante, in a valley that descends from the mountains to the sea, the city takes full advantage of the two realities, earth and sea, which define its environment and serve as visual references.
As part of a new urban development, the Municipal Auditorium rises in Teulada, the higher part of the city. From this point, and over the valley sprinkled with small white buildings, one can see the town of Moraira by the sea. Such a unique location makes the building work as a link between two urban centers that are physically separated but share territory, landscape... More
Project • By Architekturbüro Sven Röttger • Synagogues
Hurva Synagogue
The origins of the “Hurva-Synagogue,” located in the Old Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, date from 1700. It was finally completed in 1864. During the 1948 War it was destroyed and remained a ruin (Hurva) from that time on, with the old stone arc still standing.
After the Six Day War in 1967 it became a subject of many plans and architectural proposals. Louis Kahn wanted to create a new synagogue next to the old building, yet all ideas remained on the drawing board. His concepts for natural light inspired the design of this new proposal. A concrete Volume based on a square is placed next to the Hurva Synagogue on the open plaza. While starting out parallel to the surrounding context, the structure twists to face straight towards the Western... More
Project • By Lucio Serpagli - AAAoffice • Private Houses
House in Bedonia
“All material in nature,
the mountains and the streams and the air and we,
are made of light which has been spent,
and this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow,
and the shadow belongs to Light”.
Louis I. Kahn
Situated among the gently rolling hills of Bedonia near Parma, Italy, the house occupies an isolated belvedere overlooking the surrounding landscape. The shape of the building makes the most of its sloping site and panoramic position, heightening the effect with a single pitch roof and an open circular court plan.
The 3000 sqft (280 sqm) area is divided between two levels. The lower floor comprises a living area with dining room and kitchen, plus two bathrooms and two bedrooms. At the second level lie two bedrooms,... More
Project • By Koller Studio • Courthouses
The High Court of Justice and the Law Courts of the city of Pecs
After its reconstruction, the main entrance of the building has been moved to the northern leading bridge. From there we get to the new, large courtrooms. On the ground floor there is a registrar, a garage and mechanical engineering rooms. With the establishment of ramps free movement has been ensured. The building mass consists of four separate cubes. The mass formation is characterised by its closed and reserved nature that is softened by the irregular arrangement of the windows and the skylights. While the window openings appear in the northern and western sides of the building, the skylights break up the roof levels of the fifth facade and provide the courtrooms with natural light. The facade tiles are sawn Kanfanar stone cover. On the... More
Project • By Ikimono Architects • Apartments
Static place
It is the tenement house where 8 households live in.
There are a lot of losses to this building like a stone pit. It is it with the way of living to go back and forth in the average if the outside is out of it as for the ratio widely than the room of the floor space that I included to the roof terrace. The innumerable outside space possesses a power supply and water service in the exclusive possession space of each dwelling unit. But there is not the clear function as the room. By the device of the house hand, a parking lot, an atelier, a garden, dining, the gallery becomes the favorite space.
I want to think about relations with environment surrounding a person with a building and the person through a building. here, I regard the neigh... More
Project • By Kiyonobu Nakagame • Apartments
House in Shizuoka
The site is a province in a nice and warm weather where remains both a feeling of old downtown and small factories that run by family business near the dry riverbed, Abekawa river. A client wants to build the house where he / she can enjoy playing music and doing DJ. The house is encompassed by a fireproofed concrete wall and is installed the louver if traffic is barely congested on north side of site where people can approach to the house, and also on southeast side adjacent to 60 years old and rotten housings. It provides four different functioned boxes that resonate one another. Space in-between of them connect all functions including courtyard and also amplify rich light well from all directions that designed the house dramatically. Mor... More
Project • By Thomas Phifer and Partners • Housing
Millbrook House
The journey of arrival at the Millbrook House is an unhurried ascent, focused on experiencing and re-experiencing the land. On this 200-acre site, an architecture of discrete geometric objects set within a heroic landscape choreographs the route, mediating an unfolding sequence of thresholds and views. Up a rambling drive, through a forest to a small, gravel car park, the approach shifts to a footpath, rising along a hill’s ridge. In spirit, the progression recalls the seemingly meandering, yet deftly orchestrated path to an Ancient Greek temple, engaging the visitor with a landscape held even more sacred than the building itself.
At Millbrook, the first glimpse of built form is a cantilevered, weathering-steel box, the guesthouse, hover... More
Project • By Kino Architects • Offices
Himeji Observatory House
“A modern living space for observing Himeji castle that integrates smoothly with the surrounding historical neighborhood.”
This building is a private house with an attached office, directly northwest of Himeji castle. The site’s depth is longer than its width. There is also a building adjacent to this house which obscures Himeji castle at ground level. One thing to note is that even though there are modern buildings in this city, this private residence is surrounded by a traditional “castle town”, with many historical buildings, houses, and monuments.
We were petitioned by the client to design a living space with the following three requests:
1. To be able to see Himeji castle from the living room,
2. To be able to park five cars, w... More