Architecture + Design

London’s Design Museum Celebrates The Life and Work of Legendary Architect Louis Kahn

A new exhibition at London's Design Museum traces the life and work of famed architect Louis Kahn
Image may contain Water Nature Outdoors River Architecture Building Convention Center Housing Condo and Mansion
The National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Louis Kahn, 1962–83. Photo: Raymond Meier

Few architects have held such lasting influence in their field as has Louis Kahn. The now-legendary architect, who died in debt with a relatively small built oeuvre, has proven to possess a sort of posthumous magic, perhaps best realized in the 2012 construction of New York’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial, Four Freedoms Park (originally conceived by Kahn just before his death in 1974).

It's only fitting, then, that London's Design Museum should dedicate its latest large-scale exhibition, “Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture,” to the life and work of the master builder. The show traces the cornerstones of Kahn's career, from the Yale University Art Gallery to the Salk Institute to the Dhaka National Assembly Building, all the while celebrating the distinct ideological nature of his work. The collection of models, photographs, and interviews presents a rich look into the life of an architect who seems to transcend that very categorization. Perhaps Isamu Noguchi put it best, dubbing Kahn “a philosopher among architects.”

Take a tour through Louis Kahn’s stunning body of built work.

Through October 12, 2014, at the Design Museum in London; designmuseum.org

* *