Kimbell Art Museum 2017
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Completed and designed by Louis Kahn 1972
Photo & travelogue by Sam Lee / Principle from DAX Artech
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https://www.kimbellart.org/about/history
In October 1966, Louis I. Kahn (born 1901) received the commission to design the Kimbell Art Museum. From the moment it opened in October 1972, it was deemed not only the apotheosis of Kahn’s ever-evolving ideas about the architectural union of light and structure, but also one of the finest art museums ever built. It was the last work the architect would see to completion before his death in March 1974.
 
Although Mrs. Kimbell had expressed a wish that the Museum be “of classical design,” the Kimbell Art Foundation imposed no stylistic conditions on Kahn. The Foundation made it clear, however, that it wanted architecture that would succeed not only on aesthetic grounds, but also from a functional standpoint. It was a conviction shared by Kahn, who distinguished himself by a deep sense of the practical as well as the spiritual.
 
The Museum’s director, Ric Brown, advised that the Kimbell should have an inward orientation and imaginative garden treatments. But what was most important to him was that the art be experienced with natural light and outdoor views—an opinion that went against the prevailing trend of the day, which was to illumine and control lighting conditions in museums through artificial means. Such a museum would offer a different experience on every visit, as the light would vary according to the time of day, the season, and the weather. These programmatic parameters were essential to Kahn’s creative process, as he famously needed to understand the “nature of a building” before he could determine what it “wanted to be.”
 
From his earliest sketches and models, Kahn conceived the Museum as a series of long, narrow galleries, each with its sources of light—both natural and artificial—and conditioned air. Kahn’s plan is classical: an axis passing west to east through the front to rear entries is crossed by a longer north-south axis, along which the galleries are positioned in harmony with the site. The north and south sides of the Museum’s three-section pavilion are composed of six parallel, 100-by-20-foot, lead-roofed, post-stressed concrete vaults, while the center section is made of four. Due to its structural strength, each vault only requires the support of four square columns. The building is composed of three levels: the upper floor, housing most of the galleries and the auditorium, library, bookstore, café, and two garden courtyards; the lower floor, encompassing the lower-level entry gallery, conservation labs, offices, and shipping and receiving areas; and a sub-floor basement.
 
Kahn envisioned a museum with “the luminosity of silver,” illuminated by “natural light, the only acceptable light for a work of art, [with] all the moods of an individual day.” He achieved this through a design with “narrow slits to the sky” to admit daylight and pierced metal reflectors hanging beneath them to diffuse and spread the light from its hidden source onto the underside of the cycloid-shaped vaults and down the walls. Courtyards, lunettes, and light slots introduce more light, varying quality and intensity. Architectural space and light are further unified by the choice of materials: deftly handled structural concrete is juxtaposed with Italian travertine, fine-grained white oak, dull-finished metal, and clear glass. Kahn characterized the Museum building as inspired by “Roman greatness.” The classical appearance of its porticos, arches, and vaults is often cited.
 
The resulting Museum building would be acclaimed a modern classic from the moment of its opening. Brown proudly declared, in a dictum worthy of Kahn, that the Kimbell was “what every museum has been looking for ever since museums came into existence.” Brown was referring especially to the open, flexible plan, describing it as “a floor uninterrupted by piers, columns, or windows and perfect lighting, giving total freedom and flexibility to use the space and install the art exactly the way you want.” Indeed, the natural glow of its galleries, so compelling and transcendent, inspired architects and museum professionals, in subsequent decades, to bring natural light into museum structures. The Foundation Board of Directors also seemed to understand the building’s significance and potential for future inspiration. On behalf of the full Board, Mr. A. L. Scott, its President, declared: “This design will still be new and fresh 50 years from now, we think . . . What we have is magnificent.”
 
金貝爾美術館 2017
設計&完工 路易康 1972
攝影&旅記 李逸仁建築師 / 大序建築師事務所主持建築師
……終於來到我最喜歡的建築師之一路易斯康。
光線,是路康設計中一個很重要的元素。達拉斯在金貝爾美術館中很明確地運用「光」及「簡單空間」這兩個元素。美術館建築物外觀嚴謹、對稱,在內部採用尺度較高大的半筒穹隆式天花,將外部自然光線自頂部引入後,以漫射的方式呈現出空間的豐富性和新穎性;在連續的拱頂以相同的格調重複出現時,構成空間主體的薄殼被採光中庭和可以靈活變動拆換的展板所分隔,光所構成的序列在九米多長的空間中行進,順勢引導清水混凝土上的光,引發出光的節奏感。
內部空間隨著外部環境的變化而產生豐富的表情,這種以洗鍊、平易的方式去表現光空間的手法,表現出沉穩的設計理念。