The Salk Institute
has been my place for the past couple of years and it certainly has been a great place to be in. it is renowned for its architectural work and from the pictures below, you will have no trouble understanding why.
The institute is housed in a complex designed by Louis Kahn. The structure consists of two symmetric
buildings with a stream of water flowing in the middle of a courtyard
that separates the two. The buildings themselves have been designed to
promote collaboration, and thus, quite uniquely and interestingly there are no walls separating
laboratories on any floor. There are no rooms or doors and thus getting lost is an inherent part of finding anything at Salk. People often wander in looking for other people, laboratories or instruments and while it is slightly unnerving at first, to be lost almost all the time, it is great fun, once you get used to it.
"The Salk Institute’s open environment teeming with empty space is
symbolic of an open environment for creation, the symmetry stands for
scientific precision, and submerging crevasses allow warm, natural light
to enter the buildings like the intellectual light that leads to
discovery. The contrast between balance and dynamic space manifests a
pluralistic invitation for scientific study in structures developed to
accommodate their respective functions as parts of a research facility.
Although modern in appearance, it is essentially an isolated compound
for individual and collaborative study not unlike monasteries as
sanctuaries for religious discovery, and they directly influenced Kahn
in his design. Ultimately, the Salk Institute’s meaning transcends
function and physical place as a reflection of Western Civilization’s
pursuit of truth through science instead of God: it is Louis Kahn’s
masterpiece reinterpretation of the monastic “intellectual retreat” in
our day and age.
No comments:
Post a Comment