Light

The design of the Exeter Library was based upon the idea of bringing books out of darkness and into the light. (Roth p. 152) "Exeter began with the periphery, where the light is. I felt that the reading room would be where a person is alone near a window, and I felt that would be a private carrel, a kind of discovered place in the folds of construction." (The Mind of Louis Kahn" p. 77)

Photo courtesy of the Great Buildings Collection

"The reading areas equipped with comfortable oak carrels and open to natural light and a pleasant views could be considered answerable to sensation and to thinking." (Roth p. 156)

The central room is illuminated by a 4' high clerestory that wraps around the four walls of the high ceiling space. (Paz p. 56)

Photo courtesy of the Great Buildings Collection

The Central Core

"No space, architecturally, is a space without natural light...""

-N. Johnson