How did Kahn abstract the techniques used by Raffaele Stern in his Braccia Nuovo sculpture gallery, to create the Kimbell art museum?

“Utzon’s Sydney opera house was evidence of the way in which a 20th century architect could take inspirations from one tradition (the ruins of ancient Mexico) and transform them to deal with a totally different setting and context” (Curtis 2010) As the Braccia Nuovo sculpture gallery, Rome, 1822, by Raffaele Stern, was the inspirational idea for which Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1967 – 1972, was to be based around. Kahn did not simply replicate the ancient techniques, used by Stern, but he made a conscious decision to improve and abstract these techniques through modern innovation.

Richard Fargo Brown, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, was selected to head the proposed institution and in 1967 he commissioned Louis Kahn to design the museum. The building was not meant to be more than 13 metres high and since there were no prominent views surrounding the building, Kahn had to orientate the building towards the large open grass area. Curtis informs us that designing this building “led him to clarify a simple set of “type forms” based on primary geometries- the square, the circle, the triangle, etc.-which were capable of a vast variety of interrelationships over certain kernel patterns of form and meaning.”

Like in the Braccia Nuovo, Kahn wanted to get all the natural light in the building to come in through openings from above. “Daylight was spilled through the crack onto upturned stainless steel reflectors, and then dispersed as a silvery glow over the polished concrete undersides of the naked roof structure.” (Curtis 2010) To prevent the harsh Texan sun from penetrating the spaces and flood the areas with too much light, he detailed a new way of helping to diffuse light in the spaces. Unlike the Nuovo the Kimbell’s spaces have a continuous, even penetration of light.

“It is a creating of spaces that evoke a feeling of use. Spaces which form themselves into a harmony good for the use to which the building is to be put” (Curtis 2010) It is easy to see this ideology portrayed in the Kimbell art museum because he uses a repetition of barrel vaults, which are free from columns. This therefore gives a complete openness to the plan so that one can easily walk between one gallery and the next. This openness causes a freeform interconnectivity between any of the spaces which gives a spirit and life to the building.

The Braccia Nuovo expresses the load bearing elements of the columns and arches which support the walls. The barrel vaults are supported by 104 foot post tensioned concrete beams which completely supported its own weight of the cycloid vault. As Kahn informs us “I put the glass between the structure members and the members which are not of structure because the joint is the beginning of ornament. And that must be distinguished from decoration which is simply applied. Ornament is the adoration of the joint.” He is really trying to express the fact that the gable ends of all the vaults are non load bearing structures and these 4 inch panels of glass are there for ornamentation just like the 5 classical orders of columns (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite).

“There can be no doubting the sense of antiquity or of the archaic in certain of Kahn’s realisations, but this was achieved by modern means, in which space, structure, materials and light were endowed with a resonant abstraction.” (Curtis 2010) This helps to justify the point that Kahn did not simply imitate classical styles, as many architects have done, but he did take the key essence of their principals and abstracted them through modern technology. He emphasised the clutter-free structure of the building and in doing so, he created a free, beautiful building.

Komendant, August E., 18 years with architect Louis I. Kahn, United states of America, 1975

Curtis, Willian J. R., Modern Architecture since 1900, London, 2010