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Architecture Kahn PDF
Architecture Kahn PDF
Architecture Kahn PDF
from the wife, Bianca Sforni, along with business attire not especially suited to hiking.
"You've got to see this tree!" calls out Sforni's husband, Charles Firmin-Didot. Sunlight
glints off Pennypack Creek, which meanders through the 2.6-acre property in suburban
Philadelphia. The white flowers of the silver lace are just beginning to bloom, and already
their sweet fragrance perfumes the air. As we arrive at the must-see tree, a magnificent,
70-foot-tall tulip poplar, Sforni places her hand on it reverently.
This walk in the woods wasn't what expected from my visit to the couple's house, a 1967
I
masterpiece by the great Modernist architect Louis Kahn. But considering that much of the
best Modern architecture-- and Kahn's work, in particular-- is about connecting with the
outdoors, our quick hike feels like the most appropriate introduction imaginable.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE:
CONNECTING AT A DEEPER
With Nina and Claudia's support, they
worked out an arrangement with the
A
by
The series of events that led
Firmin-Didot and Sforni to the house
underlines Kahn's point. Sforni is a
fine-arts photographer with a stu
dio in New York, and Firmin-Didot
worked in London as a scout for
entrepreneurial talent. The couple happened to be vis
iting a friend in Philadelphia while Fisher-Kahn was
on the market. Their host took them to a weekend CLOCKWISE
FROM ABOVE
open house there, just out of curiosity and general A stone chimney and
interest. "Our friend said it was an incredible op fireplace abut a cozy
to see a Kahn," Firmin-Didot says. "Then window seat; the
portunity built-in kitchen table
the house was so beautiful it stayed in my mind." He underscores a pastoral
loved it, and so did Sforni. But they didn't seriously view; Kahn knew
consider buying it. "I didn't have the money available to exactly how to angle
the building to achieve
buy this house at the time, and I had work in Europe, dramatic effects of
so it didn't make sense," he says. light and shadow; oak
cabinets, stainless
But fate intervened. Late that summer, Firmin- steel counters, and
Didot concluded his employment in Europe, accept handmade tile floors
give the kitchen
ing a package that happened to match the house's
a
for someone who likes to cook," Firmin-Didot says. The ter bedroom: On the ceiling, an eerily beautiful river of
stainless steel counters were designed an inch or two moving shadows reflects the flow of Pennypack Creek.
lower than usual to accommodate Doris Fisher's height And in the dining space, Firmin-Didot and Sforni often
of 5 feet, 2 inches. Kahn specified handmade, dark red move the Nakashima table aside and project movies
floor tiles, which remind Sforni of her native Italy. onto the wall.
We eat at a 1964 George Nakashima-designed wal Sforni, a philosophical sort like her husband, tells
nut Trestle Table, chosen for its eastern Pennsylvania me she sometimes enjoys just sitting inside and watch
provenance and its kinship with the house's architec ing the day change around her. "It's such a pleasure to
ture. After they bought it, Firmin-Didot and Sforni be here all day," she says, noting that the house helps
learned that the Fishers had had the same one. The her to recharge and gain perspective. "You don't want
smooth wood table sets off the textured walls, which to leave."
are covered in a mixture of lime and plaster painstak I can identify with that.
ingly concocted by Kahn. After lunch we gather around the massive fireplace,
According to the easement, the lime plaster can with its half-round Montgomeryville stone chimney.
Kahn had the masons rake out the mortar joints to give approach preserving the cypress siding while also
to ABOVE
it a dry-laid appearance, like a Scottish cairn. Sitting at Kahn's original vision. Owners Charles
deferring to
Firmin-Didot and
a built-in window bench, Firmin-Didot and Sforni tell
Finding furnishings and artwork that suit the house Bianca Sforni put
the story of their first visit to the house as owners. has been a pet project of Firmin-Didot's. Simple wood as much effort into
Hurricane Sandy hit New York, where the cou items not necessarily from the Midcentury Modern maintaining the
landscape as they
ple was staying at the time, on October 29, 2012, period-- an Amish daybed, a coffee table bought on a do the building.
essentially shutting down much of the city. As soon as roadside in Sicily, an African stool-- mix with pieces by
the tunnels out of Manhattan opened up, they drove Kahn's contemporaries such as Nakashima. A cloth-
down the New Jersey Turnpike to Hatboro, wonder- and-papier-mache sculpture of a faceless man by artist
inguneasily how much damage their newly purchased Mark Jenkins resides in an upstairs closet, surprising
house had sustained. When they arrived they found Whitaker and me as Firmin-Didot opens the closet
that trees had fallen all over the neighborhood, but door. "His name is Bryan," Firmin-Didot says mischie
despite its wooded setting, the Fisher-Kahn House re vously. The juxtapositions seem fitting given Kahn's
mained untouched. Power lines were down in the area, eclectic influences, which included vernacular and
but their electricity worked perfectly. They lit a fire in classical traditions.
the fireplace and turned the thermostat to 69 degrees, A glass sculpture of an old-fashioned loudspeaker
and the house was warm in 15 minutes. Firmin-Didot by artist Philippe Parreno occupies a high shelf above
and Sforni took their incredible luck as another sign the main living space. "It is the voice of Kahn and
that destiny had aligned them with Fisher-Kahn. "The Fisher," Firmin-Didot says, joking.
house has treated us very well," Firmin-Didot says. But it's true, in a sense. The house somehow has
And vice versa. The only major item the couple its own personality, shaped by the man who designed
had to fix upon moving in was leaky pipe. Since
.a it and the family who lived there for so long. Playful,
then, much like the Fishers, they revel in their role empathetic, calm-- these are adjectives more commonly
as maintainers and stewards of the house. "For us it's applied to people than buildings, but all of them have
so natural to respect materials, so it doesn't feel like come up in our free-flowing conversations about the
a weight," Firmin-Didot tells me. "You have respon house today. Whether by accident, destiny, or architectural
sibility, for sure, but it feels natural." Later, he falls karma, the voices of Firmin-Didot and Sforni are
deep into conversation with Whitaker about the best now
part of the Fisher-Kahn House, too.