Architect Louis Kahn's gift for form and light is explored at London's Design Museum

Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture at the Design Museum celebrates the work of one of the most influential architects of the 20th century (1901-1974).

(Image credit: Luke Hayes )

By Ellie Stathaki

last updated 20 October 2022

Travelling all the way from the Vitra Design Museum, a new show at London's Design Museum celebrates influential 20th century architect Louis Kahn (1901-1974), the great American known for his expert moulding of building forms and unparalleled use of light.

Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture is a thorough exploration of the visionary architect's work through a wealth of architectural models, original drawings, sketches, photographs and films; in fact the several clips on display, showing interviews with prominent contemporary architects - including Sou Fujimoto, Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry and Peter Zumthor, and Kahn's former collaborators, like Balkrishna Doshi - attest to Kahn's lasting global reach, weight and legacy.

Kahn's masterpieces are spread across the globe, from California, USA to Exeter, UK and Dhaka, Bangladesh. His buildings come in all shapes and scales, from the relatively bijou Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas - next to which a new addition by Renzo Piano opened last year - to the grand and iconic Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. His influences similarly range from historical references and ancient ruins, to more contemporary, modern work. Yet all his buildings share a sense of place and represent their creator's strive of perfection and architectural exploration.

The show looks at the prominent architect's rich body of work through several angles, arranged in broad themes and respective sections. 'Landscape' examines the architect's work in relation to nature and water, and the importance the environment had to his work; 'community' explores Kahn's approach to the social significance of architecture and to spatial hierarchies; and 'science' looks into Kahn's search for new forms in architecture. Other sections of the show highlight the architect's early life and travels, his approach towards the city and the house. The exhibition closes with the acclaimed Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park - posthumously completed in October 2012.

A rich program of events is planned around the show to last through its conclusion, while a separate film installation on show on the museum's second floor, created by Alice Masters and produced by Pete Collard, presents Kahn's work in a contemporary context.

The show explores the visionary architect's work through a wealth of architectural models, original drawings, sketches, photographs and films.

Vitra Design Museum — Sections such as 'landscape', 'science' and 'community' show his projects from different angles.

Colonnade on the north side of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, Louis Kahn, 1966-72. *© 2010 Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Wort.*

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, New York, 1973-2012, Louis Kahn. *© Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park.*

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, New York, 1973-2012, Louis Kahn.©

Sketch designs in world exhibition — General Motors Pavilion, world exhibition 1964, New York (not realized).

Jewish Community Center, Ewing Township. © Louis I. Kahn Collection, Uni. of Pennsylvania & the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.

Library, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, Louis Kahn, 1965-72.©

Louis Kahn and employees in model-making, in the late 1960s. *© Architectural Archives of the Uni. of Pennsylvania.*

Medical Research and Biology Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Louis Kahn, 1957-65. *© University of Pennyslvania*

Louis Kahn in front of a model of the City Tower Project in an exhibition at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, February 1958.

Medical Research Building, Philadelphia. © Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Louis Kahn working on Fisher House design, 1961. *© Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission*

National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Louis Khan, 1962-83

Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, Louis Kahn 1959–65. *© The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania.*

Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka (1962-1983). *Collection of Gus or Fred Langford*

Steven and Toby Korman House, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, Louis Kahn, 1971-73.

The former assistant of Kahn Imtiaz Mia at the National Assembly building of Bangladesh in Dhaka. *© Robert Richman*

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, Louis Kahn, 1951-53.

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London SE1 2YD

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).