The 1967 Fisher House in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, one of just nine private homes designed by famed American architect Louis Kahn, belonged to original owners Doris and Norman Fisher until about three years ago, when the couple gave the house to the National Trust in preparation for a sale. It did, eventually, go on the market for $600K. And now, in a new feature for the PreservationNation Blog, the house's new owners, a "preservation-minded" couple named Charles Firmin-Didot and Bianca Sforni, discuss what it's like exactly living in a Louis Kahn house. "This is a house of light; it always changes perspective. All the seasons are good here, because it changes so much," Sforni begins...
Kahn's works, like the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, are known for their masterful incorporation of natural light, a characteristic that evidently also manifests in the Fisher House, which is composed from the simple geometry of cubes. In her reflection of the home, Sforni continues to explain how the space changes throughout the day ("it expands or shrinks according to the light"). She also likens it to a boat, where one can think, write, and have "just the birds that surround you."
Firmin-Didot describes how they've decided not to cover up the walls too much so they can enjoy the contrast between the the lime plaster walls and wooden elements. "There is nothing irritating your eye," he says. "Early in the morning, when you wake up, the light is magical. You sleep really well here." He goes on to praise the fireplace ("like a column of a temple") and compare living in the house to "being in a Monet painting." Head over to the PreservationNation Blog for their full accounts, as well as words from Nina Fisher, a daughter of the original owners, who once also wrote an essay on her experience in the house for Curbed Philly.
· A Concrete and Glass Home Frames Epic Views of San Diego [Preservation Nation Blog]
· Louis Kahn's Fisher House On The Market for the First Time [Curbed National]
· Louis Kahn's Fisher House Officially on the Market [Curbed Philly]
· What Lou Taught Me: Growing Up in Kahn's Fisher House [Curbed Philly]
· All Louis Kahn posts [Curbed National]