COLLECTION NAME:
Archivision Base to Module 9
Record
Preferred Title:
Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania
Image View:
General view under the building
Creator:
Louis Isidore Kahn (American architect, 1901-1974)
Location:
site: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Date:
1957-1961 (creation)
Cultural Context:
American
Style Period:
Modernist, Modern
Work Type 1:
research laboratory
Classification:
architecture
Material:
concrete; brick; glass
Technique:
construction (assembling)
Subjects:
architectural exteriors; contemporary (1960 to present); scientific or medical
Description:
Kahn introduced the concept of 'servant and served spaces', which he extended in the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania (1957-1961). This referred to the primary spaces within the building ('served') and the spaces reserved for equipment or ancillary uses ('servant'). The larger, internally undivided 'served' spaces of the Richards towers employ an innovative and finely scaled precast concrete frame that reveals its jointing and the attenuation of forces from support to periphery. The complement of this articulate structure is the finely detailed brick infill and fenestration. The intended complementarity of site, structure, space, function, construction, materials and form at the Richards Laboratories provided an invigorating stimulus to the rethinking of architecture ca. 1960. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/)
Collection:
Archivision Base Collection
Identifier:
1A1-KL-ML-C4
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania
