Lloyd Kahn

Last updated
Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn in his greenhouse .jpg
Lloyd Kahn (2021) in his greenhouse
Born (1935-04-28) April 28, 1935 (age 89)
U.S.
Alma mater Stanford University
Occupation(s)Publisher, editor, author, photographer, carpenter, self-taught architect
Known for Green building, green architecture
Lloyd Kahn (2004) at book signing Lloyd Kahn 2004.jpg
Lloyd Kahn (2004) at book signing

Lloyd Kahn (born April 28, 1935) [1] [2] is an American publisher, editor, author, photographer, carpenter, and self-taught architect. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications, Inc., and is the former Shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog . He is a pioneer of the green building and green architecture movements. His book Shelter (1973) about DIY architecture, has sold more than 250,000 copies. [3] [4]

Contents

He lives and works in Bolinas, Marin County, California. [5]

Early life

Kahn became interested in construction at age 12 when working on his family's house in Central Valley. [5] He earned a B.A. degree (1957) from Stanford University. [6]

During the late 1950s, while serving in the United States Air Force in Germany, Kahn ran the USAF newspaper for two years. He returned to California in 1960 to work as an insurance broker and in 1965 quit his insurance job and began work as a carpenter, eventually building four houses. [7]

Career in carpentry and construction

Kahn's first project was a sod-roof studio in Mill Valley, with succulents planted on the roof.[ when? ][ citation needed ] The second project was a used-wood, timber-frame Japanese and Bernard Maybeck-influenced design: a post-and-beam frame, with several 10-foot (3.0 m)-high poured concrete walls.[ when? ][ citation needed ]

Before these two jobs, he'd had little building experience, but quickly learned on the job.[ citation needed ] This is where he discovered the owner/builder perspective in learning to build. He tried to maintain this outlook throughout his publishing career, so he could explain building techniques to novice builders. He next got a job in Big Sur as foreman building a large post and beam house out of bridge timbers from a dismantled bridge; the main structural members were 30' long, 8' X 22" redwood beams. He then built his own home out of used lumber and hand-split shakes in Big Sur, developed a water supply, and terraced a hillside for small-scale farming.

Influenced by Buckminster Fuller, in 1968 he started building geodesic domes. [2] This resulted in a job coordinating with Jay Baldwin the building of 17 domes at Pacific High School, an alternative school in the Santa Cruz mountains. [8] Experimenting with geodesic domes made from plywood, aluminum, sprayed foam, and vinyl, the children built their own domes and lived in them. [8] Jay Baldwin built a dome covered with vinyl pillows. When Buckminster Fuller visited the school in 1970, he commissioned Baldwin to build a replica of the dome on his property in Maine. The school received media attention.

Work in editing and publishing

Kahn next worked for Stewart Brand as Shelter editor for the Whole Earth Catalog . In 1970 Kahn published his first book, Domebook One, followed the next year with Domebook 2, which sold 165,000 copies. In 1971, he bought a half-acre lot in Bolinas, California, and built a shake-covered geodesic dome (later featured in Life magazine). After living in his dome for a year, Kahn decided domes did not work well: he stopped the printing of Domebook 2 and disassembled and sold his dome. [7] He then went in search of other (non-dome) ways to build – across the U.S.A., Ireland, and England, and the book Shelter (1973) was the result. [9]

During the next two decades, Shelter Publications produced a series of fitness books, including Bob Anderson's Stretching (which has sold three million copies and is in 31 languages), Galloway's Book on Running by Olympian Jeff Galloway, and Getting Stronger by legendary bodybuilder Bill Pearl. From 1997 to 2015, Shelter Publishing also produced StretchWare, software by Bob Anderson that reminds you to stretch at your computer. [10]

In 2004, Kahn published Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter. [4] Home Work summarizes the best of his work over the past 30 years photographing buildings and interviewing builders, and includes numerous buildings directly inspired by the book Shelter. [4] The Septic Systems Owner's Manual, first published in 2000, was extensively revised in 2007. In 2008 Shelter Publications published the first English translation of Brazilian architect Johan van Lengen's The Barefoot Architect: A Manual on Green Building. Also in 2008, Kahn authored Builders of the Pacific Coast. Kahn authored a photo book about tiny houses, titled Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter published January 2012. Kahn's newest book is Tiny Homes on the Move published in April, 2014. [11]

In keeping with his fitness theme, Kahn, at the age of 76, continued to surf, paddle board, and skateboard (longboard). [12]

Photography

In 2016, Kahn had a solo exhibition of his photography, Lloyd Kahn: Driftwood Shelters, curated by Jennifer Gately at the Bolinas Museum. [13]

Publications

As author

As editor

As publisher

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buckminster Fuller</span> American philosopher, architect and inventor (1895-1983)

Richard Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more than 30 books and coining or popularizing such terms as "Spaceship Earth", "Dymaxion", "ephemeralization", "synergetics", and "tensegrity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geodesic dome</span> Spherical shell structure based on a geodesic polyhedron

A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy loads for their size.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igloo</span> Type of shelter built of snow

An igloo, also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dome</span> Architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere; there are many types

A dome is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a matter of controversy and there are a wide variety of forms and specialized terms to describe them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hughes H-4 Hercules</span> American World War II heavy flying boat

The Hughes H-4 Hercules is a prototype strategic airlift flying boat designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company. Intended as a transatlantic flight transport for use during World War II, it was not completed in time to be used in the war. The aircraft made only one brief flight, on November 2, 1947, and the project never advanced beyond the prototype.

<i>Whole Earth Catalog</i> American counterculture publication

The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilton Hawaiian Village</span> Hotel resort at Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

The Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort is a resort hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The resort first opened in 1955, and since has grown to become the largest in the Hilton chain of hotels, and one of largest hotels in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James T. Baldwin</span>

James Tennant Baldwin, often known as Jay Baldwin or J. Baldwin, was an American industrial designer and writer. Baldwin was a student of Buckminster Fuller; Baldwin's work was inspired by Fuller's principles and, in the case of some of Baldwin's published writings, he popularized and interpreted Fuller's ideas and achievements. In his own right, Baldwin was a figure in American designers' efforts to incorporate solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources. In his career, being a fabricator was as important as being a designer. Baldwin was noted as the inventor of the "Pillow Dome", a design that combines Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome with panels of inflated ETFE plastic panels.

<i>Mother Earth News</i> Bi-monthly American magazine

Mother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 500,520 as of 2011. It is published in Topeka, Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zome (architecture)</span> Type of building

A zome is a building designed using geometries different from of a series of rectangular boxes, used in a typical house or building. The word zome was coined in 1968 by Nooruddeen Durkee, combining the words dome and zonohedron. One of the earliest models became a large climbing structure at the Lama Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Galloway</span>

Jeff Galloway is an American Olympian and the author of Galloway's Book on Running.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aram Saroyan</span> American poet

Aram Saroyan is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright, who is especially known for his minimalist poetry, famous examples of which include the one-word poem "lighght" and a one-letter poem comprising a four-legged version of the letter "m".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnus Wenninger</span> American mathematician (1919–2017)

Father Magnus J. Wenninger OSB was an American mathematician who worked on constructing polyhedron models, and wrote the first book on their construction.

Bolinas-Stinson Union School District is a public school district in Marin County, California, with offices in Bolinas, California, USA. As of the 2017–18 school year, the District had 91 students at its Bolinas campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles L. Manson House</span> House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The Charles L. and Dorothy Manson home is a single-family house located at 1224 Highland Park Boulevard in Wausau, Wisconsin. Designated a National Historic Landmark, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 2016, reference Number, 16000149.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiny-house movement</span> Architectural movement advocating smaller living spaces

The tiny-house movement is an architectural and social movement promoting the reduction and simplification of living spaces. According to the International Residential Code, a tiny house’s floorspace is no larger than 400 square feet (37 m2). Proponents suggest that tiny homes could offer low-cost, eco-friendly alternatives within the housing market and serve as a transitional housing option for homeless individuals.

Arthur Okamura was an American artist, working in screen printing, drawing and painting. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was Professor Emeritus at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California. His work is in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum in New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is associated with the San Francisco Renaissance. He illustrated numerous works of literature and poetry, published a book on games and toys for children, and created illustrations for the TV movie The People.

Site-specific architecture (SSA) is architecture which is of its time and of its place. It is designed to respond to both its physical context, and the metaphysical context within which it has been conceived and executed. The physical context will include its location, local materials, planning framework, building codes, whilst the metaphysical context will include the client's aspirations, community values, and architects ideas about the building type, client, location, building use, etc.

Godfrey Rupert Cripps Stephens is a Canadian artist, best known for his protest sculpture Weeping Cedar Woman and large abstract wooden columns. His painting and sculpting style combines West Coast iconography from First Nations references to classical Greek and nautical elements. He is also a wooden boat builder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boyce Thompson</span> Author/magazine editor

Boyce Thompson, Jr. is an American magazine editor and the author of five books, including The Forever Home and Lincoln’s Lost Colony: The Black Emigration Scheme of Bernard Kock. A sixth book, Innovations in Mass Timber, is scheduled for publication by Schiffer in 2024.

References

  1. "Kahn, Lloyd, 1935-". LC Name Authority File (LCNAF), The Library of Congress.
  2. 1 2 Hargittai, István (2020-04-24). Mosaic of a Scientific Life. Springer Nature. p. 58. ISBN   978-3-030-34766-6.
  3. Green, Penelope (2020-04-29). "Lloyd Kahn, the king of DIY dwellings". Marin Independent Journal. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Gellner, Arrol (2004-07-28). "From haughty to humble among America's homes". SFGATE. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  5. 1 2 Brown, Patricia Leigh (2004-10-14). "If I Had a Hammer? What Do You Mean If?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  6. 1 2 "Shelf Life". Stanford Magazine. 2004-09-01. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  7. 1 2 Solomon, Avi (July 31, 2016). "Making Shelter Simple: An Interview with Lloyd Kahn". Medium.
  8. 1 2 Gordon, Alastair (2018-04-12). "Remembering Jay Baldwin, experimental geodesic dome champion". The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  9. Green, Penelope (2020-03-11). "The King of D.I.Y. Dwellings". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  10. "Lloyd Kahn, DIY Building Expert". Mother Earth News. 2013-03-05. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  11. Publishers Group West Online Catalog
  12. Whiting, Sam (2011-05-23). "Skateboarding keeps 76-year-old rider on his toes". SFGATE. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  13. "Lloyd Kahn: Driftwood Shelters". Bolinas Museum. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
  14. "Book recommendations from Point Reyes Books". SFGATE. 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2022-05-03.