One of the reasons why Louis I. Kahn is regarded as a pioneer of Post-Modern Architecture is that his works are interpreted as Structuralism and Post-structuralism in architecture. A. Lüchinger’s interpretation of Structuralism and M. Benedikt’s interpretation of Post-structuralism; especially Deconstruction Theory, in Kahn’s architecture must be proper cases for understanding this context. However, when we precisely analyze their insistence, several fallacies can be found with their incomplete grasp of Kahn’s architectural thinking. The most problematic thing is that they maximize fallibility with focusing only on the analysis of superficial phenomenon, such as formal composition, disposition of space, decorative features, and so on. Therefore, the meaning of architectural essence toward Post-Modern Architecture which Kahn had pursued during his lifetime is sometimes misinterpreted. For this reason, this paper attempt to reanalyze Kahn’s philosophy of architecture deeply with the view of aesthetics which has a key role in both overcoming their fallacies and illuminating the potentiality of Kahn’s architecture.

Unlike the extrinsic Modern Functionalist, Louis I. Kahn, a modern American architect, had been pursued intrinsic architectural nature based on historicity; The Essence of Architecture, during his lifetime. That is the reason why he is generally called as one of frontiers toward Post-Modern Architecture. However, the actual meaning of his ‘The Essence of Architecture’ is so vague and unclear until today, because not only his complex personal thought and career but various and subjective interpretation by so many later architects and architectural theorists. In the context, this paper attempt to reanalyze and clarify Kahn's idea of ‘The Essence of Architecture’ with the deep and objective view of aesthetics focused on a distinguished contemporary German philosopher, N. Hartman’s idea of phenomenological relation and the stratified structure of a work of art.

Louis I. Kahn is cleary one of 20th century great architects. The character of his philosophy of architecture can be condensed as simple words; Architectural Essence, because the very nature of his work based on historicity is so fundamental. Some contemporary architects and architectural critics regard it as a symbol of Post-Modern Architecture era expressing relative multiplicity or an expression of Heideggerian existentialism, but others do as the attribute of fundamentalist like absolute Plato's Idea. Comparing the former, studies of the latter theme have been executed superficially and somewhat biasedly for last decades. In the context, this paper attempt to reanalyze Kahn's idea of ‘Architectural Essence’ with the deep view of Platonist focused on the concept of binary opposition and causality.

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 the analytical psychology of Jung that affected Kahn in examining his 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 circulation. Thus he succeeded in embodying the concept of Tree of Sefiroth with which 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 to the place where Ayin-Sof was reduced in Kabbalah.

This paper is a study of the possibility of experience and expression in the architecture of Louis I. Kahn by focusing on the characters of entrance, court and window/wall of his public buildings. In the course of composition, Kahn defined the entrance, court and window/wall as an connecting elements and elements of boundary. The characters revealed by these elements or rooms give the clue to insight Kahn's thought of relation of interior and exterior space or inner and outer space. Following are the characters of these elements. First, a entrance reveals the fact that inner space separates from outer space by connecting these two space and giving the value to inner space as the entity and totality like outer space. The entrance gives its ontological being to human subjects not by vision but experience and expression which is the essence of commonness, that is, Silence. Kahn made the possibility of activity amplify in this common and silent space. Second, this entrance is connected with wide and huge central space not individual spaces of interior space. This extreme procedure of entering makes human subject feel sublime of intoner space. And the central spaces becomes another exterior or another world in the inner world of architecture by the lights from above and by having the boundary wall which shows same pattern of exterior wall. Third, Kahn regarded a window as the giver of lights not as the medium of vision connecting inner space with outer. He tried to connect interior with exterior through the being and character of the light expressed in the interior. And in his buildings, interior space is connected with exterior by expressing the purpose of building, composition of inner space, structural truth and construction facts through the Form, a pattern of wall, details and ornamental joints. By practicing this thoughts in the real buildings, Kahn tried to gave aura to both the interior space and entity of architecture which is regarded as micro universe like flowers, rocks and human beings.