For this Salk needed an architect and an artist. In 20th-
century icon Louis Kahn, he got both. Kahn's vision for
the project was, like all his architecture, monumental.
Practical and spiritually inspiring, with a visual
characteristic that considered classical, modern and
metaphysical influences, his design expresses a near
monastic sense of order mixed with raw materials
from concrete and glass to the teak used for the
Institute's signature wood wall assemblies used to
foster a contemplative effect that encouraged scientists to consider bigger
questions away from the laboratories.
Separating two symmetrical buildings is a travertine marble courard
with a single water feature. As one enters this space from the east gate,
as Salk and Kahn intended, they are forced to confront the sun moving
across the sky. In a video produced by the Salk Institute, the complex is
characterized as a "cathedral" to study, with curiosi a central tenet of
scientific discovery. e courard might have been very different had
Kahn not consulted his contemporary, Mexican architect Luis Barragan,
who is said to have suggested the space be le plain. At this suggestion,
notes Salk Institute neuroscientist Tom Albright, "Jonas and Louis Kahn
saw his vision and agreed." To occupy the open space is to stand on a
bridge between art and science.
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60 DIGS.NET
|
12.14.2018
SALK INSTITUTE IS A
FITTING TRIBUTE TO
HIS NAMESAKE—ONE
OF THE GREATEST
BUILDINGS IN THE
WORLD HOUSING
ONE OF THE BEST
BIOMEDICAL
RESEARCH INSTITUTES
IN THE WORLD.
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