Architecture as a Mindful Body “When we dream of the house we were born in, in the utmost depths of revery, we participate in this original warmth, in this well-tempered matter of the material paradise. This is the environment in which the protective beings live... Our daydreams carry us back to it. And the poet well knows that the house holds childhood motionless ‘in its arms’ ” Gaston Bachelard
sense of being.”163 Similarly, Mostafavi and Leatherbarrow remind 61 Josef Albers at the Bauhaus 1928, us of nature’s temporal power through material weathering164 and Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. the fusion of time and space with the present. “Weathering brings the virtual future of a building into dialogue with its actual present, as both are entangled in its past.”165 The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn, brings together the spatial philosophy of MA with the tectonic sensitivity of weathering materials. Josef Albers had a profound influence on Louis Kahn. Albers saw material expression as a means of “transcending the merely optical and empirical ‘outer sight’ by the somewhat mystical idea of ‘inner seeing’...Space was the key locus for all experience...the somewhat mystical essence or ether able to synthesize all aspects of human life ranging from physical to psychic needs.”166 Albers explored these ideas through his teachings at the Bauhaus and in his own work. “Space is represented not as a three-dimensional reality but as a more mysterious entity discovered through the cognitive process... spatial imagination transcended analytical vision...only through pure intuition rather than through reasonable knowledge.”167 Kahn’s juxtaposition of exposed concrete and teak wood create a spiritual tension between durability and weathering. The central courtyard creates a “facade to the sky”168, linking human presence with metaphysical abstraction and the contemplation of existence. “A person’s view is then directed towards nature, reminding people of their scale compared to that of the ocean.”169 163 164 165 166
Ibid. P. 56. Mostafavi, Op. Cit. P.102. Mostafavi, Op. Cit. P.112. Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa. “Toward Cognitive Architecture.” In Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture, edited by Mateo Kries, Jochen Eisenbrand, and Stanislaus Von. Moos, 133-48. Weil Am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2012. P.135. 167 Ibid. 168 Steele, James. Salk Institute: Louis I Kahn. London: Phaidon, 1993. P. 20. Luis Barragan suggested the courtyard be free of landscaping in order to emphasize the spiritual connection to the sky and the ocean. 169 “AD Classics: Salk Institute / Louis Kahn.” ArchDaily. May 27, 2010. Accessed November 19,15.
114 | 115