The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.
Louis KahnRead
The room is the beginning of architecture.
Interpretation
Architecture starts with the design and essence of the room.
Louis Kahn emphasizes that the fundamental element of architecture lies in the room, suggesting that the experience and function of a space are paramount to architectural design. This highlights the importance of recognizing how rooms shape human experiences and interactions, laying the foundation for creating meaningful and functional architectural works.
In practice
During a lecture on architectural design, one could reference this quote to highlight the importance of space.
The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.
I sense a Threshold: Light to Silence, Silence to Light - an ambiance of inspiration, in which the desire to be, to express, crosses with the possible Light to Silence, Silence to Light crosses in the sanctuary of art.
Greek architecture taught me that the column is where the light is not, and the space between is where the light is. It is a matter of no-light, light, no-light, light. A column and a column brings light between them. To make a column which grows out of the wall and which makes its own rhythm of no-light, light, no-light, light: that is the marvel of the artist.
Architecture is the reaching out for the truth.
The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven's Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.
We are born of light. The seasons are felt through light. We only know the world as it is evoked by light.
The business of art lies just in this, -- to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible.
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.
We call those poets who are first to mark, Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn, Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark, While others only note that day is gone.
I belong to this notebook and this pencil.
Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth.
Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.