Edbert Lim

024202200014

ANALYZING LOUIS KAHN:

THE MONUMENTAL MAN
The person in the photo on the left is Louis
Isadore Kahn or who we often call Louis Kahn,
he was an American architect who was
victorious in his time. Louis Kahn was born on
February 20, 1901, in Kuressaare, Estonia, and
is the son of a mother named Bertha Kahn and
a father named Leopold Kahn. During his life,
he worked for companies in various companies
in Philadelphia. Before establishing his
architectural studio in 1935, he married a
woman named Esther and had three children,
Source: https://archeyes.com/louis-kahn/ Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, and Alexandra Tyng.
While continuing his private practice he was also a design
critic and professor of architecture at the Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957.
Before his death on March 17, 1974, at Pennsylvania Station, New York City, New York, USA,
he worked as a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of
Pennsylvania. Louis Kahn is famous for his monumental architectural style of building
buildings of large sizes. During his lifetime, Louis Kahn received several awards including,
Twenty-five Year Award, Royal Gold Medal, and AIA Gold Medal.

Louis Kahn is an architect who is known for his monumental buildings or buildings that
are synonymous with super large sizes, one of Louis Kahn's famous masterpieces is the Phillips
Exeter Academy Library and Dining Hall, Exeter, New Hampshire.

Source: Source: https://www.archdaily.com/63683/ad-classics-exeter-library-class-of-1945-library-

https://www.designcurial.com/news/loui louis-kahn
s-kahn---six-most-important-buildings-
4323752/
 Phillips Exeter Academy Library is a library that serves the Phillips Exeter Academy
which is an independent boarding school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States.
Louis Kahn was chosen to design the Phillips Exeter Academy Library in 1965 and it was ready
for use in 1971, but the library was not authorized until October 21, 1972.

Talking about the space and place of the Phillips Exeter Academy Library, of course, we
all know that the Phillips Exeter Academy Library is a place, because as we know a place is a
space that has been given meaning by its users or who has been designed this building. The
Phillips Exeter Academy Library has been interpreted by its users as a school library. Before
the existence of this library, I felt that this was just an empty land or space that had no meaning
belonging to Exeter Academy, which was then built a library on the empty land so that this
empty land or space that did not have meaning now has meaning and is more useful for students
at Exeter Academy and the surrounding community.

Utilitas, Firmitas, and Venustas are 3 aspects that cannot be separated when building a
building because these 3 aspects are related to each other.

The meaning of utilitas itself is the usability or use value of an item or service. In the field
of economics utility is the level of satisfaction or benefits received by consumers from the
goods or services used. The higher the level of consumer satisfaction, the higher the usability
or utility of the goods or services. In the world of utilitas, architecture emphasizes good spatial
management, based on function, relationships between spaces, and building technology
(lighting, ventilation, and so on). This arrangement also applies to urban planning. If all of this
is done well then our clients will get a high level of satisfaction, benefit, and comfort or a high
level of utility.

The Phillips Exeter Academy Library, has high utility, as we can see for ourselves from
this image.

Source: Vhttps://www.archdaily.com/63683/ad-classics-exeter-library-class-of-1945-library-louis-
kahn/5037e17a28ba0d599b0001ba-ad-classics-exeter-library-class-of-1945-library-louis-kahn-photo?next_project=no

The picture above can make us imagine how calm and comfortable it is to read or do
assignments in the Phillips Exeter Academy Library. You can also see the layout of the space
itself on the floor plan and it looks like this.
Source: https://www.archdaily.com/63683/ad-classics-exeter-library-class-of-1945-library-louis-kahn/5037e19228ba0d599b0001c0-ad-classics-
exeter-library-class-of-1945-library-louis-kahn-second-floor-plan?next_project=no

We can see in the picture on the left which is the first floor of this library there are 8
entrances located in every corner of this building, where all of these entrances directly have a
hallway leading to the center area of the library and on the right and left sides of the floor. First,
this library has bookshelves that are neatly arranged. Here we can also see that there are 4 stairs
to get to the second floor of this library, where one of these stairs is located at the bottom right
of the plan and the other two are curved and located near the opening in the middle of the
library. While the last ladder is placed at the end of the library and the ladder is a ladder that
can access all floors in this library.

The picture in the middle is a floor plan of the second floor of the Phillips Exeter Academy
Library, on this second floor there are more bookshelves and also openings for natural lighting,
the second floor there are also many tables for reading and doing assignments where these
tables are arranged in such a way in a way near the opening for sunlight so that during the day
the reader can read with sufficient lighting without the need to use a lamp to save electrical
energy.

Last, the picture on the right side is a cut from the Phillips Exeter Academy Library, there
we can see the Phillips Exeter Academy Library has 6 floors, but actually, this library only has
4 floors, the remaining 2 floors are split level floors and there are only bookshelves on the
floors. the split levels. There is also seen at the top there is a large opening for natural lighting,
as shown below.

Source : https://www.archdaily.com/63683/ad-classics-exeter-library-class-of-
1945-library-louis-kahn/5037e18c28ba0d599b0001be-ad-classics-exeter-library-
class-of-1945-library-louis-kahn-photo?next_project=no
 According to an expert named Vitruvius himself, firmitas discusses the distribution of a
good load from the building to the ground and also the selection of the right material. Vitruvius
describes every material he uses in his buildings, for example, brick, sand, lime, pozzolana,
stone, and wood. Each material is explained starting from the characteristics of each type to
how to get it and make it. Then, he explained the method of constructing it.

In this Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Kahn uses materials in the form of, bricks that
are made in Exeter; next are slates from Pennsylvania; granite from Vermont; travertine marble
from Carrera, Italy; poured concrete; reinforced steel; teak; white oak; wall to wall carpeting.

The characteristics of bricks are the shapes are rectangular, and parallel and bricks must
be sharp and straight. The texture is not too smooth. Will experience a volume change when
discussed with water. Low thermal conductivity. The soil used for brickmaking is free of
gravel, stones, organic matter, and harmful chemicals. Soundproof, incombustible, and non-
flammable.

The characteristics of slate are slate, it is a fine-grained, clay metamorphic rock that
splits, or splits, easily into thin slabs of great tensile strength and durability; some other rocks
that occur in thin layers are inappropriately called slate because they can be used for roofing
and similar purposes.

Granite’s characteristics are strength and durability. This unique and elegant natural
stone is one of the oldest, hardest, and strongest stones ever. Absolutely beautiful natural
stone with hundreds of colors and patterns to choose from. Granite symbolizes strength and
longevity.

Travertine marble’s characteristics are The structure is uniform, and has a soft texture
with low hardness. Thanks to these characteristics, it is easy to mine and process. The density
of travertine is also low, which makes it easy to distribute. Another prominent feature of this
stone is the hole at the top.

The characteristics of concrete are mechanical strength between 25 MPa and 40MPa,
High durability, This property is responsible for the first two. The denser the concrete, the
better its performance and the greater its durability. The density of the concrete is increased
by optimizing the dimensions and packing of the aggregate and reducing the moisture
content.

Reinforced steel’s characteristics are high tensile strength and elasticity. Its thermal
coefficient is almost the same as that of concrete and respectively. It develops a good bond
with concrete. It is cheap and easily available in large quantities.

The characteristics of teak are Hardwood, very durable, treatability is extremely difficult,
has small moisture movement, the density ranges at 660 kg/m3, has a medium texture, can find
at specialist timber merchants and has a high price.

The characteristics of white oak are it has a short stocky trunk with large horizontal limbs.
Widespread branches form an erect and rounded crown. The bark is light gray, scaly or
shallowly grooved, varied in appearance, and often broken into small, narrow, rectangular
blocks and scales.
 Wall-to-wall carpeting is a category of carpet that covers a particular room in multiple
sections – or even a single section – rather than laying down multiple sections to make up your
floor. This is what gives the wall-to-wall rug it is a signature seamless effect.

Venustas is the Latin word for beauty, which is taken from the name of one of the
goddesses, namely the goddess Venus who is the goddess of beauty and the ancient Roman
goddess of love. Venustas according to Vitruvius are proportions and symmetry which are
factors that he considers to affect beauty. This he based on the human body in which each limb
has a good proportion to the whole body and the symmetrical relationship of the different limbs
to the center of the body. This, later, was illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci in Vitruvian Man.

In Phillips Exeter Academy Library Kahn is using geometrical shapes for the iconic hall
and with the support of natural lighting makes a dramatical effect for this library and when the
first time you come here, You will be amazed to see the ceilings are so high, and there are
openings in the ceilings for sunlight to enter, as well as the square and circle shapes on each
side of the openings that make this building so iconic. This is the beauty of Venustas of Phillips
Exeter Academy Library.

About the body movement in Phillips Exeter Academy Library from the experience of
people who have visited this library, which was quoted from the Savana Dixon youtube
channel, A Woman said “The way Kahn makes the space work together is just incredible to
me, he’s got the large space in the middle and it just seems to fit perfectly with the small floor
the focus on the building is just goes in the middle because of the space he left there and so
four floors and how they’re all so similar to each other. It just works really well at the atrium,
because you look up and you see the enormous volume of space with floors and it just works
together so nicely. The circulation of the building is just so intricate in a way there are stairs in
the corner and so they’re kind of put off to the side but that just crates uniform circulation for
all of the floors, once you go up the stairs, No. matter what floor you come out on, you can
circle through the floor and go back to the stairs, and you can find what books you’re looking
for. If you go in and out through all the shelves and still eventually and back up to the stairs”

From the experiences she shared. we can imagine that the Phillips Exeter Academy Library
has a comfortable use of space for its users, even for each floor that is made similar to one
another, making it easier for us to access every bookcase on each floor. She also talks about
the space in the middle of the library that seems fit perfectly, and this space in the middle is the
iconic space of this library.

As the name implies Phillips Exeter Academy Library, the typology of this building is a
building for learning. The Phillips Exeter Academy Library is located in a residential area
surrounded by buildings that are also used for education, such as Bancroft Hall, George Wells
House, Cilley Hall, Amen Hall, and McConnel Hall.

Tectonic is a word that comes from the Greek, techne which means art, craft, a system,
technique, or method of making something. In my opinion, tectonic in architecture means how
we use the structure not only for the strength of the building but also as an aesthetic for the
building.
 We can see the
structure of the Phillips
Exeter Academy Library by
looking at some of the
pictures on the left side, as in
the first picture, we can see
the columns of brick and
also the beams of concrete
which are the structure as
well as the aesthetics of this
building.

In the second picture,

we can see the central room
in this library, where this
central room exposes the
concrete structure as a
column and we can also see
here that the cut concrete
with different shapes is
stacked in such a way in this
room to make a geometric
shape, namely a circle that is
becoming one of the icons in
this building. In my opinion,
the combination of the
industrial style with the
wood used by Kahn is very
suitable.

In the last picture, we

can also see some concrete
Source: https://archeyes.com/phillips-exeter-academy-library-louis-kahn/#jp- blocks and in this photo, we
carousel-13487
can see the use of a
geometric shape, namely a trapezoid. The use of concrete blocks and geometric shapes also
adds to the aesthetics of this building.

This building has a size of 33 meters on each side and a height of 24 meters, meaning this
library has a total volume of 26,136 m3 and an area of 1,089 m2, while the standard library area
in Indonesia is 168 m2. This shows how extensive the Phillips Exeter Academy Library is. This
library itself has a total of 160,000 book volumes and the total bookcase capacity is 250,000
volumes. We can imagine for ourselves how big this library is, this library is a library with a
monumental scale after the architect's nickname, Monumental Man.
REFERENCES:
1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Exeter_Academy_Library
2. Archdaily https://www.archdaily.com/63683/ad-classics-exeter-library-class-of-1945-
library-louis-kahn?ad_source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab
3. Archeyes https://archeyes.com/phillips-exeter-academy-library-louis-kahn/
4. Characteristics of bricks from https://www.civilunfold.com/structural-
engineering/building-materials/characteristics-of-good-brick/
5. Characteristics of slate from https://www.britannica.com/science/slate-geology
6. Characteristics of granite from https://graniteforus.com/granite-
characteristics#:~:text=Granite%20characteristics%20include%20strength%20and,Gr
anite%20symbolizes%20strength%20and%20longevity.
7. Characteristics of travertine marble from https://www.deltamarble.com/main-
characteristics-of-
travertine/#:~:text=*%20The%20structure%20of%20travertine%20is,is%20the%20h
oles%20on%20it.
8. Characteristics of concrete from http://www.planete-tp.com/en/the-properties-of-
hardened-concrete-a233.html
9. Characteristics of reinforced steel from
https://www.jiuzhoujinshucn.com/products/carbon_rebar_steel/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwteO
aBhDuARIsADBqRegueT57HCx8x_afX7EVeWfAdLDmU8DGhqFA0k7VlAY8SG
VY4AdRuKsaArSsEALw_wcB
10. Characteristics of teak from https://www.trada.co.uk/wood-species/teak/
11. Characteristics of white oak from
https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=883#:~:text=It%20
has%20a%20short%20stocky,narrow%2C%20rectangular%20blocks%20and%20scal
es.
12. Characteristic of wall-to-wall carpeting https://www.azarahome.com/all-about-wall-to-
wall-
carpets/#:~:text=Wall%2Dto%2Dwall%20carpeting%2C,carpeting%20its%20signatu
re%20seamless%20effect.
13. About body movement from https://youtu.be/wvkJYpbbtt0
14. About the halls around Phillips Exeter Academy Library from Goole Maps
15. Techne meaning from https://brainly.co.id/tugas/2229114
16. Size of standard library form
http://perpustakaan.kemenkopmk.go.id/perpus/assets/kitchen/berkas/ebook/standar_n
asional_indonesia_bidang_kepustakaan_dan_kepustakawanan1.pdf