Pallasmaa, Juhani

Bio Sketch

Juhani Pallasmaa (b. 1936) is a Finnish architect, theorist, and former professor, one of the leading voices of the phenomenological critique of ocularcentric, image-driven architecture. He is known for his advocacy of haptic, multisensory, and atmospheric architecture, and for his critique of the "architecture of the eye." His work underpins Geoffrey's phenomenology of place research area (alongside Norberg-Schulz, Heidegger, Harries, Böhme).

Key Works

• The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses — the central critique of visual/retinal architecture; the call for a multi-sensory, haptic approach.
• *The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture* (2009) — the sequel to The Eyes of the Skin; the hand and embodied, sensory thought as the ground of creativity and dwelling, with a critique of the computerised hand.
• "Space, Place, and Atmosphere: Peripheral Perception in Existential Experience" (in Borch ed., Architectural Atmospheres) — atmosphere as the overarching perceptual, sensory, and emotive impression of a space.
• "Lived Space" (in Fang Hai ed., Sensuous Minimalism, 2002) — the education essay quoted by Smith: "The main object of artistic education is not the principles of making art, but the personality of the students and their image of themselves and the world."
• "Stairways of the Mind" (in Encounters, ed. Peter MacKeith, 2005) — the encountered-building passage: "A building is encountered; it is approached, confronted, related to one's body, moved through, utilized as a condition for other things."

Key Concepts

Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:

• Atmosphere
• Embodiment
• Dwelling

Relevance to Geoffrey's Research

Pallasmaa matters to Geoffrey's phenomenology of place research: his distinction between the "architecture of the eye" (which detaches and controls) and "haptic and atmospheric architecture" (which engages and unites) gives a phenomenological counterpoint to the spectacular, image-driven iconicity Geoffrey studies, and connects to the atmospheric/affective turn's relation to power.

Source Support

Source notes in this wiki drawn from this author's work:

• The Thinking Hand (2009)
• Architectural Atmospheres (Borch ed.)
• The Big Rethink Part 4: The Purposes of Architecture
• The Ethical Function of Architecture
• Embodied Spaces in Digital Times: Exploring the Role of Instagram in Shaping Temporal Dimensions and Perceptions of Architecture
• Design studio through the subtle revelations of phenomenology (Smith 2018) — Pallasmaa quoted twice as the pedagogical warrant: the education thesis ("The duty of education is to cultivate and support the human abilities of imagination and empathy… The main object of artistic education is not the principles of making art, but the personality of the students and their image of themselves and the world," from "Lived Space," 2002) and the encountered building ("A building is encountered; it is approached, confronted, related to one's body, moved through, utilized as a condition for other things," from "Stairways of the Mind," 2005) — Pallasmaa as the chapter's chief quoted authority on embodied architectural education.