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M+, Hong Kong, © Architectural Archives University of Pennsylvania School of Design
Louis Kahn 路易．卡恩
Model, Hurva Synagogue, Jerusalem, Israel 以色列耶路撒冷胡瓦猶太會堂模型
1968
The Jewish American architect Louis Kahn created three unbuilt proposals for the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Founded in the eighteenth century, the synagogue previously occupied two buildings on the site, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City; both were destroyed, leaving the site in ruin for much of its history. (Hurva means ‘ruin’ in Hebrew.) When Israel gained the land from Jordan after the Six-Day War in 1967, the city commissioned Kahn to design a new structure.
Though the three versions of the design vary, Kahn established a set of basic principles for the synagogue in the first iteration. Sixteen massive Jerusalem stone pylons, arranged to form a square, delineate the building’s exterior. Their heavy bases accommodate small alcoves, while their tops taper to a point. Inside, four square concrete columns are hollowed out to allow circulation between an open upper level and a more compressed lower level. These columns widen as they rise, complementing the profiles of the pylons, which they nearly touch. The proposal expresses Kahn’s fascination with monuments and ruins, often explored in sketches, while achieving a play of light and material that connects the synagogue to his realised work.
Kahn’s designs prompted debates among city officials, and the project lost momentum with the architect’s unexpected death in 1974. A near-replica of the nineteenth-century synagogue was completed on the site in 2010.
Though the three versions of the design vary, Kahn established a set of basic principles for the synagogue in the first iteration. Sixteen massive Jerusalem stone pylons, arranged to form a square, delineate the building’s exterior. Their heavy bases accommodate small alcoves, while their tops taper to a point. Inside, four square concrete columns are hollowed out to allow circulation between an open upper level and a more compressed lower level. These columns widen as they rise, complementing the profiles of the pylons, which they nearly touch. The proposal expresses Kahn’s fascination with monuments and ruins, often explored in sketches, while achieving a play of light and material that connects the synagogue to his realised work.
Kahn’s designs prompted debates among city officials, and the project lost momentum with the architect’s unexpected death in 1974. A near-replica of the nineteenth-century synagogue was completed on the site in 2010.
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