THE INQUIRY INTO ORDER OF ARCHITECTURE IN KAHN'S THINKING

Abstract

Louis I. Kahn is an architect, who continuously looked for the architecture itself (form) in his "way of thought". The leading key word in the middle stage of his thought is "form", which is the perfect correlate of "realization". The task of this paper is to make a thematic analysis of the "order", which is the leading key word in the first stage of his thought (the 1950's), by means of describing the difference between "order" and "form". It will be analyzed in three chapters as follows: 1. The stage before realization I (1953) 2. The stage before realization II (1955) 3. The stage before realization III (1957) In the early 1950's Kahn categorized the design process as follows: Nature of space-order-design, that he termed "order-design thesis". This concept is analyzed as a preliminary stage in thinking about "realization". He summarized his thoughts of the 1950's in the "statement on order" in Perspecta III (1955), and he also de-scribed his "space order concept" and his "changing concepts of space" in Perspecta IV (1957). The meaning of order in these statements will be critically analized by the theory of realization, ie the "way of thought". Kahn's thought in this introspective period (the 1950's) is hereby analyzed as a first step along the way of inquiry into "beginnings", although his words are not yet as thoughtful and meaningful as in his later years.