Louis I. Kahn's sketch describing the city as institution (Lobell 1979).
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion 
And the act
Falls the Shadow

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion 
And the response
Falls the Shadow

T.S. Eliot
“The Hollow Men”

Plagiarism can be extremely seductive at times.  The temptation to adopt (steal) a particular premise is almost luring; a remarkably effortless felony.  On this, such an occasion (the perfect psalm), it is intoxicating.  In the inane futility of paralleling such sentiments, and in all (guilty) humility, I sanction Mr. Louis I. Kahn's sensitive and eloquent lexis to grace the introduction of the premise that anchors the foundation of Urban Shadow:
 

Institution stems from the inspiration to live.  This inspiration remains meekly expressed in our institutions today.  The three great inspirations are the inspiration to learn, the inspiration to meet, and the inspiration for well-being.  They all serve, really, the will to be, to express.  This is, you might say, the reason for living.  All the institutions of man, whether they serve man’s interest in medicine, or chemistry, or mechanics, or architecture, are all ultimately answerable to this desire in man to find out what forces cause him to be, and what means made it possible for him to be.

Today, shadows are black.  But really, there is no such thing as white light, black shadow.  I was brought up when light was yellow and shadow was blue.  White light is a way of saying that even the sun is on trial, and certainly, all of our institutions are on trial.

I believe this is so because institutions have lost the inspirations of their beginnings.  The constant play of circumstances, from moment to moment unpredictable, distort the inspired beginnings of natural agreement.  The institution will die when its inspirations are no longer felt, and it operates as a matter of course.  Human agreement, however, once it presents itself as a Realization, is indestructible.

Inspiration is the feeling of beginning at the threshold where Silence and Light meet…  The artist offers his work to his art in the sanctuary of all expression, which I like to call the Treasury of Shadow, lying in that ambiance: Light to silence, Silence to Light.  Light, the giver of presence, casts its shadow, which belongs to Light.  What is made belongs to Light and to Desire (Lobell 1979, 20). 

The metaphor manifested by Silence and Light dictated to Kahn the “how” of a building’s existence.  His understanding of human institutions articulated the mandate of a building’s function.  It is a relief, borderline blessing, to see the words “human” and “institutions” in direct juxtaposition.  Particularly in contemporary times where the word “institution” is a fore-running contender for the profanity on bathroom walls and the concept of their function to service and enrich human needs rivals only the punch line of a well-told parody.  Kahn recognized that in the wake of the bureaucracy and unresponsiveness of the typical institution was the discriminate desire to learn, fostered only through community, and that architecture was the gospel with which to serve these desires.  Kahn went as far to state that architecture could, and should, house the spirit of its institution regardless if its immediate users have forgotten it.  “Teachers may become bureaucratic; legislators corrupt; and clergy dogmatic,” but, irrespective, “the halls of the school can always be there to enable people to exchange ideas; the chambers of the legislator can be there to enable people to gather in community; and the vaults of the church can be there to aid in one's communication with God” (Lobell 1979, 66).  This concept of the building beyond program places considerable, and justified, burden upon the architect to realize the human service inherent to the institution, the “sanctuary of expression,” the “Treasury of Shadow.”

In proposing the design of an institute of art and design for the city of Montreal, I adopt such reflections to be potentially transpired into the second (third) dimension of the design phase.  In considering the thesis Urban Shadow, the fundamental premises of the institute as a process (shadow) rather than a product; as a reflection (shadow) of the human communal desire to learn and express; and, foremost, as an urban entity that reciprocates its context as an expression (shadow) of the society it both breeds and accommodates.

 
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