Dome

View under the building, depicting seating; Kahn introduced the concept of 'servant and served spaces', which he extended in the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania (1957-1961). This referred to the primary spaces within the building ('served') and the spaces reserved for equipment or ancillary uses ('servant'). The larger, internally undivided 'served' spaces of the Richards towers employ an innovative and finely scaled precast concrete frame that reveals its jointing and the attenuation of forces from support to periphery. The complement of this articulate structure is the finely detailed brick infill and fenestration. The intended complementarity of site, structure, space, function, construction, materials and form at the Richards Laboratories provided an invigorating stimulus to the rethinking of architecture ca. 1960. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/3/2008)