Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/803526

OpenURL Link
Title
The Salk: a geometrical analysis supported by historical evidence
Author/Creator
Fleming, Steven;  Reynolds, Mark
Institution
The University of Newcastle. Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, School of Architecture and Built Environment
Description
This paper presents a geometrical analysis of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies by Louis Kahn, 1959-65. With recourse to construction drawings, a digital plan, photographic evidence, and various forms of textural evidence, we emphasize the role played by musical ratios in Kahn's thinking about architecture. The Salk is widely regarded as a coauthored work, the product of a unique collaboration between scientist Jonas Salk and architect Louis Kahn. Not dissimilarly, the paper is coauthored by a geometer and an historian, the former having the role of identifying proportions, the later charged with reconciling prima facie findings with other available evidence: job correspondence, oral histories, known influences, etc. The research is occasioned, naturally, by the Nexus 2008 conference venue and the Salk's commanding presence north of San Diego, but it also highlights a way in which artifacts, texts and narrative can be given equal consideration when historical inquiry and geometrical analysis are coupled in a joint enterprise.
Relation
Nexus VII: Architecture and Mathematics p. 185-200
Relation
Nexus, relationships between architecture and mathematics 7
Relation
http://www.kimwilliamsbooks.com/NexusVII.htm
Date
2008
Publisher
Kim Williams Books
Keyword(s)
Salk Institute for Biological Studies;  geometrical analysis;  historical inquiry;  Jonas Salk;  Louis Kahn
Resource Type
book chapter
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/803526
Identifier
ISBN:9788888479187
159 Visitors 217 Hits 3 Downloads
Save/E-mail Citation
Citation Format
E-mail Address
Subject
"The Salk: a geometrical analysis supported by historical evidence"
 
OR