1.Kimbell Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, was designed by Louis Kahn. Established in 1972, the mecca of modern architecture is designed using light as the theme. Using simplicity and texture variation in natural materials like concrete, travertine, metal, glass and white oak the architect aimed to achieve a sense of serenity and elegance. The client, multimillionaire Kay Kimbell wanted to create a public place appropriate for his art collection, this lead to the building of the 120,000-square-foot large Kimbell museum to which an 85,000 square-foot addition was done by Italian architect Renzo Piano, completed in 2013.
Maps(1)
Natural light can be described as light of mood, the museum has as many moods as there are moments in time, and never as long as the museum remains as a building there won’t be one single day that is like the other. Natural light has all the moods of time of the day, season of the year all making one day different from the other. This makes the paintings reveal itself in different aspects owing to the mood of the natural lighting. A cloud passing over gives a person a greater sense of association with the room and understanding of the life that exists outside the room vs the life depicted in a painting.
Sixteen narrow rectangular vaulted elements are laid out in three sections with six vaults side by side on each end and four in the middle; flat-roofed inverted channels separate the vaults. Two elements are eliminated in the center of the west side to make an entrance court. The sloping site gives public access from this court to the upper (gallery) level. Lower-level access is from parking lots on the north and east sides. The vaulted roofs articulate specific areas on the gallery level while interior courtyards punctuate the flow of open space. The east entrance lobby separates the sections on each end which house administrative and shop areas. Mechanical and electrical distribution systems are contained in a full basement. The vaults on the roof are supported on four 2' x 2' corner columns. Lower edges of the shells support 7' reinforced concrete channels with aluminum soffits which house the air and electrical distribution systems. Exterior travertine infill walls have a reinforced concrete core between columns. Two-way post tensioning is used in upper-level floor slabs. The lower level is conventional poured-in-place concrete of pan formed slab and joist construction.(2)
The pattern of enclosure of the museum is a succession of cycloid vaults of post-tensioned reinforced concrete, each of a single span 100 feet long and 23 feet wide, each forming the rooms with a narrow 2 1/2' slit at the apex with concrete cross struts every 1 0' to the sky, with a mirrored shape to spread natural light on the side of the vault. This light gives a glow of silver to the room without touching the objects directly yet give the comforting feeling of knowing the time of day. The evaluation of natural light at the Kimbell has been distributed into four separate sections: first, the intended absence of light counterbalanced by light reflected from below the porches, second, the 'slice of the sun' that creates a line of light admitted from the vault's apex, third, the diffused, silvery, reflected light on the gallery ceilings, and finally the light that enters the museum horizontally through the vertical glazing. (3)
Plans (4), (5),Section (6)
View of exterior porch. The portico receives light reflected from a pool of water.(7)
The open porches add a sense of how the building is made even before you step inside it. Located between the colonnade of trees and the building, the porticos appear to be a part of the site design and at the same time a part of the building design. The quality of natural light in the porches facilitates between the series of spaces in the park, and the series of space and movement on the building interior. Occupying a main, empirical role, the porches act as modulators of light on the site. The porches provide a welcomed protection from the harsh sunlight often found in Texas, and define the exterior, shaded spaces similar to the shade of trees. The movement from outside to inside is enriched by several changes in scale, material, light and orientation. The colour of the water is reflected onto the building, generating dynamic changes in the perception of the architecture. The exterior vaults receive light reflected off the water from the west, at the close of each day. The trees and porticos provide shade and define movement aligned with the grain of the vaults. (3)A few spaces in the building get the sun's full amount of heat, glare and intense illumination like the lobby, dining area, auditorium, and library reading room, which are the social spaces rather than artistic areas. Kahn used the same reflector for these vaulted rooms as the galleries, the reflector was modified to allow more direct sunlight to enter. In this way Louis Kahn marked these areas with a quality of light made possible only by the building’s identity- the vault. (3)
Due to the close proximity to the vault and reflector, the reader is immersed in strong sunlight from above.(3) Restaurant – The tables and chairs follow the line of light(8)
The two galleries are separated on opposite sides of the museum, but the path of light ties them together in a clear, natural way. From the first step into the Kimbell, the visitor is introduced to a mystical line of light that illuminates a pathway to art. Extrapolating from this unusual, traditional use of light for a museum lobby, the Kimbell galleries are divided using a channel of sunlight, and simultaneously connected as well with light reflectors oriented north-south on the site. Providing an even light reflected down the concrete vault surfaces and then the works of art, all design variations of the vaults focus on the need to renovate architectural space through natural light. The gallery vaults established a solid, purely coherent system of light and darkness, high and low spaces, servant and served spaces, and parallel and perpendicular movements. "The vaults run strictly north-south, so the most even light is at midday, and the bias shifts from side to side between morning and afternoon. When clouds pass, the change in light flickers dramatically through the length of the building. The rigid order and geometry of the design created a banding in the perception of the ceiling plane that consisted of light-vault-served space strips alternated with dark-horizontal servant space to give the galleries rhythm and scale related to movement.” (3)
“By nature of the vault-like structure, you have the play of lofty rooms with a space between each vault which has a ceiling at the level of the spring of the vault. The lower space does not have natural light but gets it from the larger chamber. In the loftier rooms, how the room is made is manifest; the dimension of its light from above is manifest without partitions because the vaults defy division. Even when partitioned, the room remains a room. One might say that the nature of a room is that it always has the character of completeness.” (2)
Vaults (9)
Crucial to comprehend the proportions, order and span of the vaults, light was let in under all of the vaults on the exterior of the building to separate them from infill walls. Even the exterior porticos intended to provide shade, were separated from the main building by a light well serving lower level workspaces.(3)The exhibition panels direct views and reflect light, highlighting the transverse relation between columns and spaces. The panels can be positioned completely under the flat ceilings, in effect placing the artwork in the servant zone, and a lower level of light. The movable panels thus make an enormous impact upon the visual and spatial openness of the galleries, and natural light. (3)
Museum visitors might not be so conscious of the light that is already all around them when they are in the museum, if it had not been seized into the museum design. At the Kimbell, Louis Kahn designed gaps in the building so that light could enter and become a part of the design; this quality of light suggested by the vault was brought into the building at the form’s periphery. Added to the skylight from the slit over the exhibit rooms, a counterpoint of open courts cut across the vaults at a right angle with calculated dimensions and atmosphere, marked as Green Court, Yellow Court, Blue Court, influenced by the kind of light that their proportions, their foliation, or their sky reflections on surfaces, or on water give.(2)
The travertine and concrete used in construction beautifully bind together to overcome any irregularities in the poured concrete. Their similar look makes the building look monolithic. Double insulating glass is used on the gallery level; Plexiglas covers the light slits, portions of floors. The gallery flooring, doors, frames and cabinetwork are of quarter-sawn white oak. Soffits and reflectors are made of anodized aluminium. (2)
Section (2), Arial View of Site (10), (9)
Bibliography
1. Google Maps [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://www.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&tab=rl&authuser=0
2. Kahn L. Light is the Theme: Louis I. Kahn and the Kimbell Art Museum : Comments on
Architecture. 1st ed. Johnson NE, editor. Kimbell Art Museum; 1975. 80 p.
3. David C. Sledge. THE ART OF AMBIGUITY (Experiencing the Kimbell Art Museum) [Internet]. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 2001 [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4434652.pdf
4. Connally AR. THE KIMBELL ART MUSEUM BUILDING FROM CONCEPT TO. 1977.
5. Looking at light in the Kimbell art museum | by Priji Balakrishnan | Medium [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://medium.com/@priji/looking-at-light-in-the-kimbell-art-museum- 3b85f2e3bc62
6. Looking at light in the Kimbell art museum | by Priji Balakrishnan | Medium [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://medium.com/@priji/looking-at-light-in-the-kimbell-art-museum- 3b85f2e3bc62
7. Kimbell Art Museum Guide By Kimbell Art Museum - induced.info [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: http://induced.info/? s=Kimbell+Art+Museum+Guide+By+Kimbell+Art+Museum
8. Blog 2: The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A. | Architecture for Non Majors [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://fall2017.thedude.oucreate.com/uncategorized/the-kimbell-art-museum- fort-worth-texas-u-s-a/
9. Kahn Building in Detail | Kimbell Art Museum [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://www.kimbellart.org/content/kahn-building-detail
10. Kimbell Art Museum Expansion | Renzo Piano Building Workshop Architects - Arch2O.com [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 26]. Available from: https://www.arch2o.com/kimbell-art-museum-expansion-renzo-piano-building-workshop/
