Customer Reviews

The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

During my 15 years of architectural education and some years of practice (both as architect and as 'explainer' of architecture) I have not yet encountered a book on architecture which has changed my view on architecture so dramatically.

Juhani Pallasmaa's book makes an excelent argument for retrieving in architecture that which seems to have been lost for a long time: the lived intelligence of the bodilly senses. In his book Pallasmaa gives an overview of the development of the occularcentrism which is dominating architecture (and pretty much every cultural aspect) in the Western world for centuries and goes on to show how this leads to an impoverment of the architectural experience (and with that the impoverment of our daily lifes).

The mix of theory, practice and convincing examples (ranging from architecture, art, cinema to literature and poetry together with the size (80 pages) makes the book easily readable, even for the less theoretical inclined reader. My advice: read it!

For those of you who are as impressed with this book as I am: there's another book by Pallasmaa with the title 'Encounters'(published by Rakennustieto Oy Rati, June 2005). This book features a collection of essay's which were written by the author over the last 20 years. This book is also about the phenomenology of architecture but, due to its size (app. 350 pages), gives a broader overview of the thinking and writing of Juhani Pallasmaa. It seems it is not available at Amazon but I hope they will put is on there list soon!

Now back in print and updated into a second edition, this little book is a masterpiece on the differences between what we see in a set of architectural plans compared with what we sense when we walk into a building.

When we actually walk into a building, we are sensing the building with all of our senses. The smell of the still drying paint, the echo's from unexpected sources and more now have an impact that wasn't there in the plans.

This book consists of two essays:

The first surveys the historical development of the eye-centric orientation of our Western culture that began with the Greeks.

The second begins to lay out a way towards a multi-sensory approach to architecture that forms a sense of belonging and integration.

As a student in architecture I would recommend this book to any person involved in any way of design. Not only buildings, because architecture also includes every aspect of the designing of space. This can therefore include industrial design, automotive design, etc. The book dicusses the interaction between people and spaces(buildings) using the human senses as medium - the way we see, feel, hear and experience a space. It is a fresh and captivating book and it is a real pitty that it is out of print.

The book has excellent intentions and addresses a very important and neglected issue in architecture. The topic discusses the predominance of mind/visual based designs that end up being projects of artistic self expressions on the part of its sponsors. The author challenges
this bias to make us aware that buildings also need to relate to us not only visually to also all of our human senses. The writing is clear and simple but still academic in flavor. While this is a much needed message I gave only 3 stars because of the following observation. I thought the overall concept was excellent but I did not think the application of the concept was very successful once I looked at the work of the architects being referenced. The author quotes many architects whose work he believes touches all of our senses and are therefore assumed to be less visual and cerebral. My reaction was these architects are doing non-cerebral but from an intellectual place. As a result while their buildings are richer and more interesting to our senses they are nevertheless still very conceptual and dissociative. In other words we still end up with designs that while promoting a fuller sensory experience are still very mental. For me that's the weakness with this book at least based on the specific architects referenced.

Maybe this is petty, but as an architecture student who is short on money for textbooks - I don't appreciate paying $30.00 + for an 8"x 6" paperback that is essentially an essay. At 72 pages, at this size it is really a 36 page, 8 and half by 11 inch essay. So you are essentially paying nearly a dollar a page with shipping.

Is it good? Sure, but it isn't a dollar a page good. Save your money and order it from your library. Or if you have it assigned for class, go in with a couple of friends, and then scan it and pass it out, and sell the copy back through Amazon. It is black and white, so you won't be missing anything with a scan, plus you can mark up the copy to your heart's delight.

On the same subject of phenomenology and hapticity in architecture, a much better buy, is "Experiencing Architecture" by Steen Eiler Rasmussen which is 237 pages of brilliance at $15 new, not from Amazon, and $3.50 used. This book was written in the 60's. It is a very readable classic discussing design generally and architecture specifically emphasizing the importance of incorporating all of one's senses when creating new designs.

In five years of Architectural Design, I am hard-pressed to find a book that has made such an impact on my thinking and overall awareness of architecture. This is truly a must-read for any architecture student, and is extremely interesting for those non-architects out there. I highly encourage the investment.

This book says all it needs to say in the 1st 2 chapters, after that it's repeat, repeat, repeat! How many different ways can you say the SAME thing!!!?

According to wikipedia, this was a good book to begin with for reading about phenomenology in architecture. It is shorter than most, but a good read as it is linear, to the point, but illuminating in terms of understanding the use of other senses besides vision in architecture. I recommend it to any architecture student.

In a time in which everything is fast consumism, Pallasma invites the reader to feel and "sense" the architecture in a different way, while providing some background info on the importance and history of the ranges and values that the human senses have played in development of the individuals and their perception. A nice text that pulls architects and interior designers into a different sphere of thinking and thus can guide them into creating more sensible designs to human needs.

I have just finished this book in conjunction with a seminar I am taking on Sensory Design as I work towards my Master of Architecture degree. The book impressed me in several ways, but was most impactful in that it reinforces several ideas that I believe to be intuitively linked to architecture and architectural expression.

Most importantly, Pallasmaa's discussions of ocularcentrism and its growing dominance in the architecture of the Western World sheds light on a growing (and potentially limiting) phenomenon - that architecture is executed with its visual sense as the focal point for design, rather than for the environmental experience that it can create. His essays explore the fundamental necessity for architecture to facilitate and trigger experiences that affect all of the senses.

Pallasmaa's argument is layed out very coherently in two essays. The first discusses visual dominance as a potential limiting factor in contemporary design, while the second makes a case for each sense and its crucial importance in consideration to overall contemporary design.

What we have here, in the end, is a highly theoretical text that firmly states Pallasmaa's arguements and validates them with discussions of artistic and archtiectural principles. Overall, the book makes a strong case for the necessity to design for all senses in architecture, and is a launching point for further discussion and critical introspective thinking.