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Room within a room: Louis I. Kahn and the Reference Library of the Yale Center for British Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Kraig Binkowski
Kraig Binkowski*
Affiliation:
Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06520-8280, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

What does it mean to work in a Modernist masterpiece? How is a ‘humanist’ space used? The author’s personal perspective on the architectural elements of the Reference Library at the Yale Center for British Art illuminates the humanistic aspects of Louis I. Kahn’s design. He focusses specifically on the material surfaces of white oak, wool, formed concrete, and their interplay with natural light in the library. Architectural elements such as the wood library carrels, concrete pillars, and exterior and interior windows of the library are considered in relation both to Kahn’s perceptions of a library and to his use of these elements in the museum as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 36 , Special Issue 1: Special issue: The architecture and space planning of art libraries , 2011 , pp. 5 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2011

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References

1. Wurman, Richard Saul, What will be has always been; the words of Louis I. Kahn (New York: Rizzoli, 1986), 89.Google Scholar
2. Loud, Patricia Cummings, The art museums of Louis I. Kahn (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989), 28.Google Scholar
3. Ibid., 30.Google Scholar
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8. Ibid., 168.Google Scholar
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10. Ibid., 180.Google Scholar
11. Ibid., 179.Google Scholar
12. Huff, William S., ‘Louis Kahn: sorted recollections and lapses in familiarities,’ Little journal 5, no.l (September 1981): 1–38.Google Scholar
13. Wurman, , What will be has always been, 179.Google Scholar
14. Ibid., 89.Google Scholar