The social poetics of urban design: rethinking urban design through Louis Kahn’s vision for Central Philadelphia (1939–1962)

Abstract

The architect Louis Kahn is known for the simple yet poetic composition of his words. Through some of the unique features of his unbuilt master plan for the urban centre in Central Philadelphia, this paper argues that we can understand the true quality of Kahn’s design only when we look at his proposals through the lens of linguistics and semiotics. The appeal of Kahn’s design lies in what semioticists and linguists would call ‘poetic quality’, or the production of inventive understandings of both the conventions and new inventions of the shared social milieu. It is precisely because the poetic function in language is humanistic, that Kahn’s use of social poetics has brought the abstract ideas of urban planners down to earth in a way that everyone can appreciate.