Salk Institute, San Diego

Name: Salk Institute, San Diego
Brand: Spaceplay
SKU: MINI_090
Price: 45.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

£45.00

Solid Cast-Concrete Miniature Model
Size: 3cm high, 8cm wide, 8cm deep
Scale: 1:1500 (approx)

BUY TWO OR MORE MODELS AND GET 15% OFF

Look down the line of water between its mirrored wings, every angled study cast in fine concrete. A courtyard open to the Pacific sky, and every sunset that follows the water.

Made to order and shipped within 30 days

Designed and made in my UK studio

Comes gift-boxed for the perfect concrete gift

Express processing available for UK orders

Shipping

All Spaceplay models are made to order and are usually made and posted within 30 days.

All orders are sent using a tracked postal service, and you’ll receive tracking details once your model has been posted.

UK orders usually arrive within 3 working days after posting. International orders usually arrive within 8 working days after posting, although customs and local postal services can sometimes cause delays.

If you need your order for a specific date, please let me know before ordering and I’ll do my best to help.

UK customers can also select Express Shipping at checkout to have their model made and posted within 8 days.

Returns

You can return unused and undamaged items within 30 days of delivery for a refund, excluding return postage costs.

If your model arrives damaged, faulty, or incorrect, please email me within 14 days of delivery with your order number and photos of the issue. I’ll arrange a free replacement to be made and posted to you.

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Building Information

Location: La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA
Architect: Louis I. Kahn
Completed: 1965
Status: In use as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Brief Overview:
The Salk Institute was founded by Jonas Salk, the scientist behind the polio vaccine, who commissioned Louis Kahn to design a research campus on a coastal bluff above the Pacific. Two mirror-image laboratory buildings in concrete and teak frame a bare travertine courtyard, divided by a thin channel of water that Salk called the river of life. The Mexican architect Luis Barragán persuaded Kahn to leave the courtyard empty, creating what he called a façade to the sky. Twice a year, at the equinoxes, the sun sets along the line of the water.

Making my concrete model

Some buildings are made to help people think. In La Jolla, on a bluff above the Pacific, Jonas Salk, the scientist behind the polio vaccine, asked Louis Kahn to build a place for research. Kahn gave him two concrete wings facing each other across an empty travertine courtyard, split by a single line of water running towards the ocean. Twice a year, at the equinoxes, the sun sets along it.

The hardest part was the stillness: the symmetry, the angled studies, and the long empty space between them. Now it’s here. A courtyard open to the sky, cast small enough to hold. Made for the architects who have made the pilgrimage, the scientists who know the value of a quiet place to think, and anyone who has stood at the end of that courtyard and watched the horizon.

Salk Institute, San Diego

Architects talk about it the way others talk about cathedrals. This Salk Institute miniature concrete model recreates Louis Kahn’s research campus in La Jolla, San Diego: two mirror-image laboratory wings facing each other across a bare travertine courtyard, with a single line of water running out towards the Pacific. It’s American Brutalism at its most serene, concrete and teak arranged around a view of the horizon. Small enough for a desk, a bookshelf or a studio table, this miniature concrete building makes a gift for an architect, a scientist or anyone who loves Brutalist architecture. Each concrete model of the Salk Institute is hand-poured, finished on a laser-etched cork base and gift-boxed, with the weight and texture of real cast concrete.