Fisher House

Luis Kahn – Norman Fisher house, Hatboro, Pennsylvania USA, 1967

The Fisher House, also known as Norman Fisher House, was designed by architect Louis Kahn and built for Dr. Norman Fisher and his wife Doris, a landscape architect, in 1967 in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. Characterized by two cubic volumes, stone foundations and detailed cypress cladding, Fisher's house stands out as a clear statement of how Kahn was working at that time, and how his work differed from that of his contemporaries. In the Fisher House, Kahn avoids the linearity of the modern plan and focuses on simple geometry, allowing the cubes to separate public and private space. Widely known for monumental works such as the Salk Institute and Richards Medical Center, Fisher's home is a testament to Kahn's ability to work with the details of small residential architecture. The Fisher House stands as the clearest example of Kahn's unique architectural style at the moment, his use of the two almost perfect cubes differs greatly from what was being done at that time and sets him apart in his field of design.