Cultural Institutions as Formative Elements in the Work of Behrens, Utzon and Kahn

This paper is concerned with the role of human institutions as generators of architectural form, with reference to the writings and works of Peter Behrens, Jørn Utzon, and Louis Kahn. These architects were willing to regard human institutions as living cultural entities, which ought to have a determinative influence on the design of the buildings that were to house them. This may be contrasted with the naïve functionalism promoted by some of their contemporaries. The paper begins with a brief view of the theoretical background alluded to above, and then turns to the theatre as a primary cultural activity, and the prominent place it held in Behrens's thinking during the opening years of the twentieth century. Affinities are explored between Behrens's concept of the theatre and Utzon's subsequent treatment of the theatre as a central civic institution in his design for the Sydney Opera House (1956). A parallel is seen in Louis Kahn's insistence that the starting-point for an architectural project should lie in a vision of the human institution which the project is to serve. A critical role for cultural institutions as objects of architectural attention indeed was present in urban schemes produced from the early twentieth century, as exemplified by the work of Tony Garnier.