What are served and servant spaces?

More than hundred years ago, in 1901, important architect later known as Louis Kahn was born in today’s Estonia. His family was very poor and they emigrated to the USA because his father feared to be called to serve in the military during Russo-Japanese War.

He has built many important and interesting buildings, the most known is probably the Salk Institute.

Even though expressing of internal mechanics was perfectly acceptable in modernism, Kahn felt that people should remain without knowledge of the functions in buildings.

Therefore he categorized space into two categories. Served and servant.

Servant spaces are supporting the main areas of the building. Toilets, storage and technical rooms, stairs and corridors, duct shaft and kitchens are main examples of spaces that are considered as servant spaces.

Servant spaces are not meant for habitation, they will be visited only briefly or by internal staff. They are mostly meant for mechanical equipment, ducts and pipes.

Served spaces are the primary areas. Concert halls, commercial spaces, living rooms, bedrooms, auditoriums, classes and exhibition spaces are common examples of served spaces.

Served spaces are meant for habitation and are meant for primary occupants of the space or visitors. They are meant for people.

One of the few houses Kahn designed is Esherick house, Philadelphia.

On that example, we can analyse the practical use of his principles. Kitchen, bathroom, stairs, dressing and shower are servant spaces. Living room, dining, lobby and bedroom are served spaces.

On simplified plan, you can also see how both types of spaces are layered. This rhythmic arrangement is typical for Kahn.

For the practical purpose, I would suggest to create a third category – circulation. I think circulation elements such as corridors and stairs do not exactly fit into the same category as storages and technical rooms, because they are meant for the primary inhabitants of the space.

From Kahn’s work, we can learn to group technical spaces together, that usually helps with an easier arrangement of ducts and pipes. As you can see in the example below, one of the possibilities might be to use one shaft for ducts and pipes from both kitchen and bathroom.

I hope you liked this post and now you can use Kahn’s theory to improve your own design work.

Cheers