Rome and the Legacy of Louis I. Kahn

Louis I. Kahn was one of the most influential architects, thinkers and teachers of his time. This book examines the important relationship between his work and the city of Rome, whose ancient ruins inspired in him a new design methodology. Structured into two main parts, the first includes personal essays and contributions from the architect’s children, writers and other designers on the experience and impact of his work. The second part takes a detailed look at Kahn’s residency in Rome, its effects on his thinking, and how his influence spread throughout Italy. It analyses themes directly linked to his architecture, through interviews with teachers and designers such as Franco Purini, Paolo Portoghesi, Giorgio Ciucci, Lucio Valerio Barbera and the architects of the Rome Group of Architects and City Planners (GRAU). Rome and the Legacy of Louis I. Kahn expands the current discourse on this celebrated twentieth-century architect, ideal for students and researchers interested in Kahn’s work, architectural history, theory and criticism.

Elisabetta Barizza, architect, PhD, teacher of history of art and design. After working as an architect in Italy and abroad, she specialised in teaching. She is currently engaged as curator and writer in various activities connected to her research work carried out at Rome Sapienza University. In 2017, she published the book La forma tangibile. La nozione di organismo nell’opera di Louis I. Kahn dalla svolta di Roma al progetto di Venezia, and in 2014 (with Marco Falsetti) Roma e l’eredita di Louis I. Kahn.

Marco Falsetti, architect and PhD, is Adjunct Professor at the Sapienza University of Rome. His researches focus on the unresolved fragments of the modern city and the role of the ‘classic’ in the formation of contemporary design. Since 2012 he has been the head of his own architecture firm in Rome; his projects and drawings have been exhibited in many Academic Institutions such as the Istituto Nazionale della Grafica, the Faculty of Architecture of Rome, the Polytechnic University of Milan and the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy. He publishes regular essays and articles in national and international magazines on the topic of architecture in identity-creating contexts. In 2014 he published (with Elisabetta Barizza) Roma e l’eredita di Louis I. Kahn. In 2017, he published the book Annodamenti. La specializzazione dei tessuti urbani nel processo formativo e nel progetto (Knottings: the specialization of urban fabric in the formative process and in architectural design) on the role of paths and routes in the formation of public space. Annodamenti was a finalist at the National Scientific Dissemination Award 2017, held by the National Research Council (CNR).