Geometries of Reading, Light of Learning: Louis I. Kahn's Library at Phillips Exeter

Abstract

In Louis I. Kahn's library at Phillips Exeter Academy geometries of architecture and media function as parallel rhetorical systems, sometimes complementing, sometimes contradicting one another. This present paper examines how the geometric forms of the library shape patrons' relationships to media in the collection, and how Kahn's elementary geometries have accommodated new media characterized by non-geometric, non-linear forms. © 2010 Kim Williams Books, Turin.