Fazlur Kahn`s Legacy

 

    

Very few people seem to remember (or even know) the name but we actually owe him a lot due to his pioneering structural designs on supertall skyscrapers, including my all time favorite Sears Tower in Chicago (Bruce Graham(Skidmore Owings and Merrel), 1974).  At the heart of his contributions lie the tubular structural systems (bundled, trussed etc.). At certain points might fundamentally limit architectural exploration but their merits more than compensate everything that might have been taken away from the architect this way.  Moreover, we have to analyze skyscrapers with their relation to the city skyline as in a city like Chicago the building-surrounding relation is not assessed through the street level but through the changes in city’s skyline cluster. Besides, super tall buildings like Sears tower are not perceived as externally introduced artifacts (or substitutional defects let`s say ) when the pertinent city has identified itself with vertical development, again the notable examples being Chicago and the New York City. A simple formed black glass facated skyscraper like the Seagram building (Mies van der Rohe,1957) might be absurd in Dublin, but in New York, it becomes a hallmark of modernism and elegance. While we fundamentally analyze and perceive skyscrapers as reduced shapes like boxes; such a reductionist approach unveils the importance of one thing, the proper blending of right proportions with geometry. An apt illustration of this is the John Hancock tower in Chicago. No building does look higher than the “Big John”; in this case the X shaped exoskeletal cage along with a continuously tightening anodized aluminum silhouette creates a very unique (and frigtening!) effect for the people looking upside. This form has essentially been guided by and finalized  in accordance with Fazlur Kahn`s novel designs. I personally haven’t seen anything quite like that. Tubular design also serves another purpose; as much as you take out structural elements to the outside there will be more undivided room left for the design of office and/or residential space. And that gives you a lot; like the highest indoor swimming pool in the world (44th floor of the John Hancock bulding), which is undeniably a cool thing. With all these said, we can confidently reckon that Fazlur Rahman Kahn still remains unchallenged among civil engineers with his impact on the skyscraper design in provoking the quintessential architectural route.