在他的第二次欧洲之行之后，卡恩带着大量的建筑灵感回来了，他可能觉得有必要将这些建筑灵感转化为自己的设计。如前所述，路易斯康在国外的经历为他提供了对许多重要遗址的视觉和物理上的理解;他在美国学院的时光是他的作品成熟过程中具有开创性的时刻，因为经验、先例和个人思想相结合，形成了他独特的个人风格。回到费城后，路易斯康开始组织工作，并将他精炼的空间组织应用于实际项目。 阿德勒住宅 Adler House (1954 – 55)和德·沃尔住宅 DeVore House (1954 – 55)设计大约在同一时间，还有特伦顿更衣室和犹太社区中心(1954 – 59)。他回到美国后不久，每个项目是基于格子网格,生成的特定规划编制立方体。布鲁尔的影响继续从设计中散发出来，因为这两个住宅设计都使用了“亭子计划”，将住宅与庭院空间结合起来。
阿德勒和德·沃尔住宅都由一系列集成的砌体立方体组成，这些立方体组织在一个风车平面内。风车平面与早期的弗兰克·劳埃德·赖特平面中的构成非常相似;虽然房子没有标志性的赖特式中央壁炉，但存储体似乎取代了它的位置。可以想象，赖特1939年在宾夕法尼亚州阿德莫尔(Ardmore)开发的“阳光房”(Suntop Homes)为路易斯康提供了一个特殊的先例，因为它们不仅基于风车平面，而且为未来的扩建提供了可能。
每个住宅内部都存在一种奇怪的二元性，因为这两个住宅设计是第一个展示卡恩使用柱子作为基本结构元素的住宅设计——作为空间的定义者和光线的给予者。德·沃尔住宅平面图中的每个立方体由6根450的石柱组成，而阿德勒住宅使用更少的桥墩——4根1050砖石角柱——截面更厚。在风车平面组织空间的地方，结构对空间进行了表征，赋予每个空间一个身份。正如卡恩所说，“柱子聚集在一起，形成了壁橱、浴室、壁炉、管道竖井和楼梯井的空间。”与特伦顿澡堂相似，这是卡恩使用结构作为服务空间和被服务空间的定义元素的另一个早期例子。
Following his second trip to Europe, Kahn returned with a plethora of architectural devices that he may have felt compelled to translate into his designs. As previously mentioned, Kahn’s experiences abroad provided him with both a visual and physical understanding of numerous significant sites; his time at the American Academy was the seminal moment in the maturation of his work, as the experiential combined with both precedence and personal rationalization to formulate his unique identity. Upon returning to Philadelphia, Kahn began the exercise of organizing and applying his refined rationalizations to practical commissions. The unbuilt Francis Adler (1954-55) and Weber DeVore houses (1954-55) were designed around the same time as the Trenton Bathhouse and Jewish Community Center (1954-59), shortly after his return to the U.S. Each project was based on a matrix-oriented Tartan grid, producing a program-specific compilation of cubic volumes. Breuer’s influence continued to emit from the designs, as both residential designs utilized a ‘pavilion plan’, incorporating the house with the patio and garden spaces.
Both the Adler house and the DeVore house were composed of a series of integrated masonry living cubes organized within a pinwheel plan (Fig. 1.10, 1.11). The pinwheel plan is quite similar to a device found in an early Frank Lloyd Wright scheme; although the house lacks the trademark Wrightian (centrally-located) fireplace to anchor the plan, a storage volume appears to take its place. It is conceivable that Wright’s 1939 “Suntop Homes” development in Ardmore, Pennsylvania provided this particular precedent for Kahn, as they are not only based on a pinwheel plan but have a built-in allowance for future expansion.
There is an odd duality that exists within each house, as the two are the first residential designs to exhibit Kahn’s use of the column as the essential structural element– as the definer of space and the giver of light. Each cube within the DeVore house plan is comprised of six 18” masonry columns, while the Adler House utilizes fewer piers – four masonry corner columns, each 3’-6” in section – that are thicker in section. Where the pinwheel plan organizes the spaces, the structure characterizes them, gives each an identity. As Kahn put it, “Piers gathered to form space for closets, bathrooms, fireplaces, vertical shafts for ducts and a well for a stairway.”42 Similar to the Trenton Bathhouse, this is another early example of Kahn’s use of structure as a defining element for both served and servant spaces.
Pierson William Booher. (2009). Louis Kahn’s Fisher House: A Case Study on The Architectural Detail and Design Intent.Theses. University of Pennsylvania.
