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Memory enabling dwelling: remembrance and amnesia in Louis I. Kahn’s design for the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California

Louis I. Kahn’s reference to historical forms is known as a distinctive characteristic of his architecture. However, Kahn’s reference to the past is more intricate than what has been acknowledged to date. Kahn did not embrace memory as a fixed aesthetic criterion. He referred to memory as a living temporal phenomenon that endows his architecture with an enduring value. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla is recognised as one of his masterpieces. Scholars have pointed out aesthetic similarities of Kahn’s design to several monuments of the past and assessed the aesthetic contribution of these monuments to his work. In light of Kahn’s theory regarding memory, as expressed in his writings, together with Jonas Salk’s ideas on modern research and its relationship to traditional thinking, this article shows how Kahn creatively referred to the memory of religious monastic structures to express constitutive ideas and beliefs of modern research. His refences to memory in the Salk Institute embody the notion that memory can serve as a basis for belonging, encourage mediation, and inspire meaningful participation. In this sense, memory plays a role in architecture conceived as a living phenomenon that transcends aesthetic concerns. It is an architecture of cognitive and habitual associations and connotations in which remembrance and amnesia coexist. In conclusion, the article points towards the value of referring to memory in architecture. As this enables poetic dwelling, it also summons the importance of the built environment in serving societies as places to both recollect our past and redefine our aspirations for the future.