• Journal of architectural history
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-105
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• 2009

This study set out to compare and analyze the influences Kabbalah, which was Louis I. Kahn's faith as a Jew, on his architecture based on Freud's psychoanalysis that had many exchanges with modernism and contemporary architecture and theories. The specific goals of the study were to shed light to Kahn's presence in contemporary architecture anew and establish the methodology of using psychoanalysis in building new theories of architectural planning. When the theories of psychoanalysis were introduced for comparison and analysis purposes, Kahn tried to differentiate his buildings by placing a function or symbolic central space at the heart of a building even though he did adopt a characteristic of modernism architecture, which was placing a core at the centre of plan, for a while. Such a tendency of his was based on Jung's opinions rather than Freud's and affected by Ecole des Beaux-Art. The analysis results also indicate that he conceived "Served Space & Servant Space," "architecture of connection" and "silence and light" that made up the essence of his architectural theory from the relationships between Ayin-Sof, Kabbalah's absolute god, and Sefiroth. It's also very likely that his often use of triangles and circles in his architecture was affected by the Tree of Sefiroth diagram of Kabbalah. His tendency is well reflected in Salk Institute and Philips Exeter Academy Library, where he placed a laboratory or courtyard at the center where a core was supposed to be, created a corridor or courtyard space between those central spaces and the core, and connected them one another with to perceive the being of Ayin-Sof into an architectural space, which is well proven with Mikveh Israel Synagogue where he directly applied the Tree of Sefiroth diagram. The synagogue also contained a hollow column that served as an important concept in his late architecture. The hollow column was also the result of him applying the concept of Sefiroth of the place where Ayin-Sof Was reduced in Kabbalah.