It is always immensely exciting to do a follow up about a project we mentioned in a previous post since we can check its progress and see how it's doing.
Today we announce for example that the Kickstarter campaign for the reissue of Richard Saul Wurman's The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn (published by artisanal and independent publisher Designers and Books) has finally gone live.

As you may remember from a previous post The Notebooks (you can check a preview here) were originally published in 1962 by Richard Saul Wurman (a colleague and friend of architect Louis I. Kahn's and founder of the TED conference) and printer Eugene Feldman, under the Falcon Press imprint.

The volume (re-released in 1973 by MIT Press) included a section of travel sketches from the 1950s depicting sites in Greece, Egypt, Italy, and France that reflected Kahn's interest in monumental forms, plus a part featuring Kahn's early drawings and renderings for, among other well-known projects, the sculpture court of the Yale University Art Gallery; the A.N. Richards Medical Research Building (Laboratory), at the University of Pennsylvania; the General Motors Exhibition Building for the 1964 New York World's Fair; and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, California.

Wurman selected the drawings included in the book, choosing not what he personally liked, but the ones that reflected his passion and his spirit. As Wurman states today, "I didn't choose what were considered his best, most finished drawings. I chose those that spoke to me - much in the same way that Lou would say you had a conversation with the building...the drawings that told me what they were trying to be."
Kahn's son Nathaniel, director of the Academy Award-nominated film "My Architect: A Son's Journey," says about The Notebooks that "it was the first book devoted to my father's art, and he loved it."

The Facsimile is an exact copy of the 1973 edition and it recreates a sort of symmetry in publishing: the volume is indeed accompanied by an all-new Reader's Guide with extensive archival information, previously unpublished drawings by Kahn and essays from new writings by a variety of critics and colleagues, including Wurman, Louis Kahn’s three children - Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, and Alexandra Tyng; critic Paul Goldberger, Peter Reed (formerly of MoMA), Norman Foster, and Tadao Ando among others.

While architects, designers and passionate Kahn fans will obviously be interested in this publication, fashion designers who like to reference architecture in their collections should also grab a copy as it would help them developing original inspirations for their designs. 
Kahn displayed a gift for drawing from an early age, but his parents were too poor to buy art materials, so he improvised and sketched with burnt twigs and matches. He favored the quality of the charcoal line so much that even after he had become a celebrated architect he continued at times to draw with burnt matches.
Kahn's style was also characterized by a deep sense of history and pure geometry in design and the texture of materials used in construction, notably concrete and brick. So his legacy - this passion for humble materials that he used to sketch, pure geometries and textures - may provide fashion designers with some intriguing inspirations (without mentioning the fact that some of these sketches could be easily printed on minimalist designs for maximum effect - what about a concrete grey or ivory summer dress with Kahn's sketches from his trips to Europe?)
You can get your copy and enjoy some of the limited time discounts for early supporters on the Kickstarter campaign page and remember that there will be special rewards for those Kahn fans who may invest in the project $850 or more: rewards in this case include a private live virtual tour of the Louis I. Kahn Collection conducted by William Whitaker, Curator and Collections Manager of the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania; a virtual tour of Kahn Korman House given by Larry Korman, owner of the last house Louis Kahn designed (1973, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania), and a private virtual screening of "My Architect, A Son's Journey", with a Q&A session with Nathaniel Kahn. 
The Facsimile and the Reader's Guide will be published following the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign, but it looks like the campaign is progressing pretty well: Designers & Books has so far launched other successful Kickstarter campaigns such as the one for the book Depero Futurista (The Bolted Book) by Fortunato Depero, and at the time of writing this post the Louis Kahn Kickstarter campaign has already hit over €14,000. The Facsimile and Reader's Guide are scheduled to be printed in Summer 2021 and the volumes and the rewards will ship in November 2021, so just in time for a very architectural Christmas.

Image credits for this post
All images from The Louis I. Kahn Facsimile Project
1. Front cover
2, 3, 4, 5. Four-page letter from Louis I. Kahn to Richard Saul Wurman and Eugene Feldman (included in 1973 edition of Notebooks and Drawings)
6. 1951 Luxor, Egypt, crayon in notebook
7. 1951 Delphi from Marmaria, Greece, crayon in notebook
8. 1950 Doges’ [Doge’s] Palace, Venice, Italy, crayon in notebook
9. The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn 2021 Kickstarter project image