Michael A. Vuksta
The objectives, strategies, and activities set forth in this essay, are a refinement of those presented in the curriculum unit designed in conjunction with last year’s seminar at the Institute. Experience gained in the application of that unit and research into the writings of Walt Whitman, Vincent Scully, Louis I. Kahn, and Charles Moore, are resources which inform this supplement. I will also draw upon these sources in presenting my own design project, executed as a part of this year’s seminar.
In my reading of
The Shingle Style and The Stick Style
by Vincent Scully, I was drawn to the inscription from Whitman’s
Leaves of
Grass
which precedes Professor Scully’s scholarship and research into theory and design in American architecture. This acknowledgement of the power of the poetic image to take precedence over both the scholarship and practice as will be seen in the work of Louis I. Kahn of architecture, parallels my own experience in presenting architectural concepts and methods to my students. It led me to search Whitman’s writing for other references to architecture. The selection by Professor Scully reads:
When the materials are all prepared and ready,
the architects shall appear.
I swear to you the architects shall appear without fail,
I swear to you they will understand you and justify you,
The greatest among them shall be he who best knows you,
and encloses all and is faithful to all,
He and the rest shall not forget you, they shall perceive
that you are not an iota less than they,
You shall be fully glorified in them.
My own discovery appears at the outset of this essay. The substance of these citations and the other sources I have mentioned will be utilized in my exploration into the nature and essence of architecture.
The preface of Professor Scully’s book lists four objectives which are compatible with my own purposes. These objectives are: 1.) “to illuminate the main course of theory and design;” 2.) “a concern with a process of growth in architectural thought and design;” 3.) “to present some works by important American architects;” and 4.) “the search for expression and order in American architecture.” In my own work, I will utilize poetry to illuminate ideas and projects planned for presentation to my students. The process of growth will not only refer to architecture, but to the student him/herself. I will present the work and thought of the twentieth century American architect Louis I. Kahn to accomplish the third and fourth objectives. Special attention should be paid to certain words which appear in these objectives, for they will come to play a greater role in the discussion of Mr. Kahn’s architectural and philosophical work. They are: thought, works, expression, order, and origin, as it appears in the subtitle of Scully‘s book. This last word should read as “beginnings” in the work of Kahn.
Although I make no pretense to the authority which accompanies the exhaustive research and scholarship of Professor Scully, I am in agreement with the principles he has applied in his search for an indigenous American architectural tradition. The association of Whitman and Kahn is not a direct one. Whitman’s ideas, the product and expression of nineteenth century society, were no longer relevant in the 1950’s, when Kahn first began to fully apply his integrative art. There is no indication that he drew upon this philosophical tradition; and it is not my intention to imply that he did. The similarity lies in their position as artists. In the words of Professor Scully, it is that they “ . . . most fully embody American conditions and aspirations.” Scully’s words are made in reference to Mr. Kahn, but it is my opinion that this is also the case with Whitman. In his discussion of Kahn’s work in his
American Architecture and Urbanism
, Professor Scully identifies these conditions and aspirations as “ . . . the determined search for probity and integration, the struggle necessary to make contact with reality, and with the place, the tendency toward technological determinism, . . . all (these) . . . have been consistent American characteristics, and all have been turned to creative use by Kahn.”’ These traits are operating in Whitman’s work as well. The lines from Whitman are taken from two poems whose titles attest to this relation of artist to place, technology (read occupations in Whitman), and self.
The body of this essay is divided into three sections. The first, entitled
The Architect as Poet
, will reveal my own discovery of poetry’s ability to enhance and assist in the instruction of architecture. I will also make a brief analysis of Whitman’s lines for an understanding of the nature and essence of architecture. In the section which follows,
The Architect as Person
, I will investigate the work of Louis Kahn, specifically, in a tour of the Yale Center for British Art. Finally, in
The Architecture of Place
, I will present my own design efforts. Ideas expressed in each of these sections will reveal strategies to utilize in the activities which follow this narrative.
I would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the authors mentioned above and others whose works appear in the bibliography. The ideas expressed in this essay, though perhaps derivative, are strictly my own. I have not sought to misrepresent their artistic and scholarly efforts and apologize for any misreading that might have occurred.