Project 3: Research

The First Unitarian Church of Rochester

Architect: Louis Kahn

Louis Kahn began the design of The First Unitarian Church of Rochester with a question mark representing the sanctuary. Then he put the class rooms around it showing how the questions rose from education.

Because the sanctuary is the central room he couldn’t put windows to let light in. He put four light towers at the corners of the space to allow light into the central room.

Having the class rooms open to direct sun light created a problem as well. There could not be too much light in classrooms because it would cause glare. To protect the windows he set them in deep masonry reveals.

 

Light Machines

We built simple models to see how the light behaves in different structures

 

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