ABSTRACT
Louis Kahn's most history-inspired works were the Plan for Philadelphia, and all the Richards Laboratories. Kahn delivered his ideas on architecture in a way that was new to us; he talked in aphorisms, in oracular tones, with flights of fantasy. His short utterances were forceful, more like mantic poetry than real arguments. In the early 1960s, Louis Kahn became a key figure of reference for Italian architects. The first issue of the journal Controspazio, founded and edited by Paolo Portoghesi, which appeared in 1969, was dedicated notionally to Kahn. The journal also contained the pivotal essay by Christian Norberg-Schulz, 'On the Concept of Place'. Another important facet of Kahn's architecture had to do with the idea of monumentality. His interest in it is borne out by his drawings of the Parthenon and the Acropolis, one of which would be chosen by Ludovico Quaroni for the cover of his 1977 book Progettare un edificio.
