The importance of a drawing is immense because it's the architect's language. - Louis Kahn to
his masterclass 1967 Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) was one of the most significant architects of
the twentieth century and his influence is present today in ways both profound and subtle.
Unlike previous publications on Kahn which have focused on his built work and which considered
the drawings foremost as illustrations of these this is the first in-depth study of drawings
as primary sources of insight into Kahn's architecture and creative imagination. By offering a
spectrum of close readings of drawings by Kahn and his associates in a series of incisive and
richly illustrated essays this book is at once an intimate artistic portrait of this important
architect and a provocative and timely contribution to the current discourse on representation
in architecture. For architects and students of architecture Kahn's lasting significance is
not only in the buildings he built but in how he designed them. Based on unprecedented
archival research engagingly presented by a group of eminent scholars and architects and
lavishly illustrated with over 600 highest quality reproductions The Importance of a Drawing
is destined to become a standard work in the literature on Louis Kahn.
