The retrospective of the well-known American architect Louis Kahn’s works（路易康） had been exhibited at Taipei Fine Arts Museum（台北市立美術館）from 28th March 2015 to 5th July 2015. The exhibition displayed over 200 of Kahn’s architectural models, including manuscripts, sketches, pictures as well as his personal belongings.
Louis Kahn, an architect who has been regarded as one of the foremost architects who are renown with the other big shots such as Frank Lloyd Wright（萊特）, Le Corbusier（柯比意）and Mies vander Rohe（密斯） in 20th century. Kahn created a style which utilized multiple space structure and exquisite light technique in his art works. The exhibition divides the architect’s life into six parts: the city he lived, science, house, landscape, community and eternal.
At the entrance of the exhibition, there’s an architectural model of “City Tower（費城塔）” project on display, which Kahn combined the structure of DNA with architecture. “The prototype of City Tower project can be considered as Kahn’s genius creation. In addition, geometry such as globe, column and cube can be easily founded in Kahn’s works,” said Jochen Eisenbrand, the director of Vitra Design Museum.
“As an architectural amateur, I think Louis Kahn’s works are far beyond modernism. They represent monumental and eternal beauty,” said Huie-yu Kung（龔慧瑜）, a local Taipei citizen. Kahn’s admiration to the historical site has reflected in his works as well because his travel experience in Rome prompted him to bring the elements of eternity and sacred sense in the architectures.
Besides the models and sketches, the exhibition also exhibited seven videos, and invited cotemporary architects to discuss Louis Kahn’s influence on the modern architecture. It’s worth mentioning that the museum played a documentary directed by Nathaniel Kahn, who is Kahn’s son. Moreover, the documentary had been nominated in 2003’s Oscar Award.
