I’d venture to
say that most architectural designs don’t even get built. But, at the same time, some
of the most experimental and lasting foundational lessons of an architect’s career are found
in unbuilt schemes. But, the fact they remain unbuilt means that no one will be able to
visit these designs to experience them and witness what it would be like to walk around
their spaces.
Such is the case of the Goldenberg House by Louis Kahn. While researching for the video
I made on how Kahn uses rooms in his designs, linked above, drawings and images of models
for the Goldenberg house kept popping up and I had never really looked that closely at
them before.
This is despite the fact that it is widely regarded as a critical moment within the design
thinking of Kahn. It’s an early use of a centralized arrangement that also includes
servant and served alternating rings and corners that are taken away to produce what would
become the Philadelphia corner
So, I want to take a deep dive into the Goldenberg House, redraw its plans and sections, build
a full 3D model of it in the computer, and then explore it as if we were visiting it
for the first time. I’ll also share the model as a file that you can use to explore
yourself in your phone, tablet, or computer without any extra software. That is linked
in the description below. Also, the video is broken into chapters so you can skip around
what you find to be the most interesting aspects of the exploration. Let’s visit the Goldenberg
house starting with a timeline.
The Goldenberg House was designed in 1959 by the Architect Louis Kahn.
Louis Kahn was born in Estonia in 1905 and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shortly
after, where he would live for most of his life. He attended architecture school at the
University of Pennsylvania, where would teach starting in 1957 following a teaching stint
at Yale where he would complete his first major commission of the University Art Gallery.
In addition to Kahn’s legacy of building, his impact as a teacher was animportant chapter
to his architectural contributions.
At UPenn, he would study under Paul Cret in a style of instruction called Beaux Arts,
where students would recreate and render notable works of the past. Absorbing their ancient
lessons through imitation to understand classical principals of symmetry and proportion which
underlie building plans and facades. This form of study that would influence his approach
even with his more modern designs.
While talented, Khan would remain relatively obscure through the 1930s, 40’s, and into
the 50’s. But would then explode into a decade of the most prolific architectural
production ever seen by an architect. Through this time he’d be regarded as one of the
best architects living. Until his untimely death by heart attack on a return trip from
India where his body would spend three days in a the train station bathroom until he was
discovered.
But in 1959 when the Goldenberg House was designed, he was on the cusp of his creative
boom. It comes just after the Trenton Bath House, a similarly arranged centralized plan
with 4 sides and empty corners.
It also falls right at the beginning of design for the Richards Medical Research Laboratories
where Kahn’s servant/served techniques would develop. And the Goldenberg House was designed
at the same time as Esherick House, which uses similar T shaped windows.
And also at the same time as Salk Institute commission, which would go on to be considered
one of his defining masterpieces. But, whose plan would begin in a configuration reminiscent
of the Goldenberg’s atrium with rings of activity before it would get straightened
out into the famous axis of view outward into the horizon that would define that work.
The Goldenberg House was designed for a suburban lot in Rydal, Pennsylvania for the clients
Morton and Mitzi Goldenberg. It was slated for this site here, where another house would
end up being built 4 years later. Mmm 4500 square feet. The lot size was 140 by 180 and
diagonally oriented relative to north.
The driving concept of the building is the square atrium, lined with glass, located at
the center of the house. A few sketches made by Kahn help to explain the role of this space.
The square has radiating diagonal lines coming from its corners, however, movement occurs
as a series of square rings around the courtyard, turning perpendicularly at these angled creases.
Early sketches show a more regular outer shape w which isn’t true for the final form. You
can also see the literal erasure of the corners in Kahn’s drawings. The corners were drawn
at first and then removed. This process creates what some have called the Philadelphia corner,
because it shows up in other prominent architect’s work around the same time, notably Robert
Venturi’s, which has a similar corner in his beach house. But its also seen in the
work of Mitchell Giurgola and Thomas Vreeland. The effect is that the building plan looks
like a solid square, but it also looks like its made of four sides coming together. And
it is left ambiguous which is the intended understanding.
The flow of the house is around heart of the building which is public and move toward the
rear exterior. Then another ring of utilitarian spaces exist like the kitchen and bathrooms.
Then, the outer most ring are the bedrooms and
living rooms.
Program - Rooms are ordered by function. boys rooms at front. Servant quarters to left of
entrance. Kitchen, Laundry to the right. Study to the south and master bedroom.
Spaces are separated but not isolated like the pavilions of trenton bath house or separate
buildings of lab buildings.
In this way the building is designed from the inside out, with the outer silhouette
becoming irregular as the needs for each space are accommodated around the ring. Khan says
“You start with this but sometimes the interior wants to move out and break the walls out.”
Khan really talks about this being a discovery for himself and I think its reminiscent of
FLW, this inside out mentality and the diagonal connections between spaces.
Geometry - 9 square grid - puts it in the company of buildings like the Villa Rotunda.
ABCBA
There are other driving geometry relationships in here too. For instance, you draw a circle
around the inner most columns, then trace a square encompassing the circle, that’s
where the next line of columns go. The same holds true for the next row out.
Adhering to these geometrical principals is what allows us to build an accurate model
in the computer.
Building the Goldenberg House in the computer was a bit complicated. Due to all the angles
of the roof and the angles in plan, every sloped surface depended on the next, so one
change or discovery manifests in a ripple effect throughout the building.
That said, the plan geometry was relatively easy to establish using the built in modular
relationships of the plan and center points.
But, natural discrepancies between different drawings of the house was to be expected,
given that we’ve caught it partially through the design process, but of course, this made
it difficult to determine certain details which were still in flux.
And the details in this house seem to make a ton of difference. For instance, those triangular
columns don’t really come out in full scale plan depictions, but Kahn draws a particular
detail of them for us to understand.
Another challenge was the scale, the house is actually much smaller than we originally
thought, bringing everything in tight. Despite the dissolved outer boundary, the house is
not sprawling or particularly large.
Exploration Exploring the Goldenberg House, I’m struck
by just how different the building is depending on your perspective of it. From above or in
plan, the building has a pretty recognizable configuration and shape. However, you might
think it would be confusing to navigate once your inside.
From outside, the building is unknowable and confusing. With lots of different elements
competing for visual dominance.
But, as you enter the house, the approach is straightforward. Every door feels like
a framed view with certain elements falling out of the frame, while colliding inside of
our view in a composition or painting.
The off-axis entrance is understood relative to the symmetry of everything else, as we
peer around the fireplace which dominates as a landmark as you navigate around.
The choreography of tighter and compressed spaces with those that are expansive and open
draws us into the most public spaces of the hosue.
The private spaces are closed off while the building really pulls you through to the living
room and presents it as a series of layered spaces that you can’t move through directly
in a straight line. Rather, you must turn the corner and walk around the courtyard.
The chimney also straddles and interrupts the inner circulation ring with a sunken seating
area. When we look up, the chimney is framed almost perfectly in the skylight which faces
northwest. Overall, the diagonals in the building aren’t as dominant as I thought they would
be. However, in the living room, the see/saw roof is really featured.
The skylights are more serving of the outer rooms and in the master bedroom and study,
they are very striking as you are presented them right away. The spaces on the outside
are very outward facing, as opposed to the living room which is very inward. The rest
of the spaces seem bright logically arrayed.
Findings My first thoughts of the Goldenberg House
was that it looks like a strange Frankenstein of a building. Or like some extinct fossil
of an animal that hadn’t fully evolved yet. And it does appear that way from the outside.
I know Kahn lists the dissolved nature of the exterior as an important discovery, but
to me it looked kinda messy.
But going into the house, the building makes much more sense. The experience is cohesive
and human scaled. This is unlike some of his other work which can be monumental and make
visitors feel small and diminutive inside of it.
I really enjoyed exploring the Goldenberg House and if you did too, please consider
giving the video a like. Also leave a comment on your thoughts about the Goldenberg House.
I’d love to build an active conversation about the building here in the comment section.
I’m also open to other suggestions of buildings that could be built and explored.
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