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Distributed for Park Books

Louis I. Kahn - Silence and Light

The Lecture at ETH Zurich, February 12, 1969

Louis I. Kahn (1901–74) was one of the foremost architects in America during the twentieth century. His notable buildings include the Yale Study Center; the Salk Institute in Pasadena, California; and the Exeter Library in Exeter, New Hampshire. On February 12, 1969, Kahn gave a lecture at the School of Architecture at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. Entitled Silence and Light, the lecture explains Kah’s spiritual understanding of architecture, which goes far deeper than simply constructing buildings. He also gives a remarkably prescient account of a belief in sustainable architecture that prefigures the twenty-first century’s focus on green technology. The lecture is represented in transcripts into five different languages (German, Italian, English, French, and Spanish), as well as an audio recording of Kahn giving the lecture in English included on CD. To complement the original text, the editor has included a preface written by Kahn’s close friend and fellow architect Balkrishna V. Doshi, as well as many of Kahn’s own images and drawings, some of which have never been published before.


167 pages | 50 halftones, 1 compact disc | 6 1/2 x 10 1/2 | © 2013

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Table of Contents

Prologue: Louis I. Kahn—Yogi of Architecture
Balkrishna V. Doshi

Introduction
Alessandro Vassella

Bernhard Hoesli introducing Louis I. Kahn: Zurich, February 12, 1969
Silence and Light: Transcript of the Lecture, by Firman Burke (1977, revised 2009)
Stille und Licht: Übersetzung von Alessandro Vassella und Angelika M. Škoda (2010)
Silence et Lumière: Traduction de Philippe Meier et Patrick Mestelan (2000) 
Silencio y Luz: Traducción de Miguel Angel Roca (1984)
Silencio e Luce: Traduzione di Christian Norberg-Schulz (1980)

Biographical Notes
Selected Bibliography
Credits
Contributors’ Biographies
Imprint

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