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Of Boullée and Kahn, and the Spirit of the Sublime

Corresponding Author : K. Taufiq Elahi (elahi-arc@sust.edu)

Keywords : Sublime in architecture, Classical, Neoclassica, Étienne-Louis Boullée, Louis I. Kahn

Abstract :

If we look at the string of development-trend in architectural history and theory in a broader spectrum, it would have been seen that two diverse but distinctive ideals have waged war against one another throughout the centuries. The rationalists were the pioneers amongst the two – as far into the past as texts were found on building art and its relevant issues – they sought for absolute truth and beauty in every object of creation, believing in their hearts that a magical or grand theory is there. Whereas, the empirical mind-sets were biased on knowledge accumulated through experience and practice – the relativity of things in human familiarity and perception. From the earliest of civilizations to the Postmodern world, the debate of the rational and the empirical standpoints came across revolutionary advancements in architectural thought-process that readily fulfilled the demands of changes within the socio-economic and political boundaries. But there are instances in this long and battered string where some individuals strove for beauty beyond general impressions of human parameter – ‘the sublime’ – that could create its own existence defying time and space. In this narrative, the creative genius of Étienne-Louis Boullée and Louis I. Kahn has been compared against their contemporaries and against the theories in architecture that prevailed in their times. In doing so, ‘sublimity’ as a unifying factor – a common phenomenon that exists within their architectural creations were reviewed in the light of their own theoretical perspectives.

Published on June 30th, 2014 in Volume 21, Issue 1, Applied Sciences and Technology