Juhani Pallasmaa
Encyclopedia
Hämeenlinna
Hämeenlinna is a city and municipality of about inhabitants in the heart of the historical province of Häme in the south of Finland and is the birthplace of composer Jean Sibelius. Today, it belongs to the region of Tavastia Proper, and until 2010 it was the residence city for the Governor of the...
, Finland) is a Finnish architect and former professor of architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology
Helsinki University of Technology
Aalto University School of Science and Technology , was the temporary name for Helsinki University of Technology during the process of forming the Aalto University...
and a former Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture (1978-1983). He runs his own architect's office – Arkkitehtitoimisto Juhani Pallasmaa KY – in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. He is also the Ruth & Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as well as the current Plym Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
in Champaign, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
His exhibitions of Finnish architecture, planning and visual arts have been displayed in more than thirty countries and he has written numerous articles on cultural philosophy, environmental psychology and theories of architecture and the arts. Many of his articles are first featured in ARK (The Finnish Architectural Review).
Among Pallasmaa's many books on architectural theory is The Eyes of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses, a book that has become a classic of architectural theory and is required reading on courses in many schools of architecture around the world.
A selection of essays written by Pallasmaa, from the early years to more recent ones, has been translated into English and collated together in the book Encounters – Architectural Essays (Helsinki, 2005), edited by Peter MacKeith. The book was shortlisted for the RIBA
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
2005 International Book Award.
In 2006 Pallasmaa turned 70, and the occasion was marked by the publication of the book Archipelago. Essays on Architecture, edited by Peter MacKeith. The collection contains essays by 23 authors, all with some connection to Pallasmaa or MacKeith. They include: Karsten Harries, Dan Hoffman
Dan Hoffman
Dan Hoffman may refer to:*Daniel Hoffman , American writer and academic*Danny Hoffman , Major League Baseball player...
, Steven Holl
Steven Holl
Steven Holl is an American architect and watercolorist, perhaps best known for the 1998 Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrated 2007 Bloch Building addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City,...
, Colin St. John Wilson and Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...
.
Pallasmaa is a member of the Finnish Association of Architects, and an honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
. During the spring of 2010, Pallasmaa, along with American playwright Leigh Fondakowski, was an Imagine Fund Distinguished Visiting Chair at the Institute for Advanced Study at University of Minnesota
Institute for Advanced Study at University of Minnesota
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is one of six University-wide centers at the University of Minnesota. The Institute for Advanced Study supports and encourages interdisciplinary and collaborative research and creative work across the University and fosters...
.
A selection of architectural works designed by Juhani Pallasmaa
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
. In Finland this is referred to as "constructivism", and at that time, the late 1950s and 1960s, stood in opposition to the work of Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...
, who was increasingly seen in his home country as an idiosyncratic individualist. But the interest in Japan also contained the seeds for Pallasmaa's later concerns; materiality and a phenomenology of experience. It was after returning from teaching in Africa that Pallasmaa turned away from pure constructivism, and took up his concerns with psychology, culture, and phenomenology
Phenomenology (architecture)
Phenomenology is both a philosophical design current in contemporary architecture and a specific field of academic research, based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties....
. His concern for details and small works such as exhibition design has sometimes earned him the label "jewel-box architect". 2006 saw the completion of his largest ever work, the Kamppi Center
Kamppi Center
Kamppi Centre is a complex in the Kamppi district in the centre of Helsinki, designed by various architects, the main designer, however, being Juhani Pallasmaa. It is said to be Helsinki's new downtown commercial and residential centre...
, incorporating the main bus station, a shopping centre and housing in central Helsinki, though the work was split up into different sections involving various architects.
- Kamppi Centre, Helsinki, 2003-2006.
- Snow Show, Lapland (with Rachel WhitereadRachel WhitereadRachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
), 2004. - Bank of FinlandBank of FinlandThe Bank of Finland is the central bank of Finland. It is the fourth oldest central bank in the world.-History:The Bank of Finland was established on 1 March in 1812 in the city of Turku by Alexander I of Russia. In 1819 it was relocated to Helsinki...
Museum, Helsinki, 2002-2003. - Pedestrian and cycle bridge, ViikkiViikkiViikki is a neighbourhood of about 5,500 inhabitants in Helsinki, Finland. It is located at the bottom of Vanhankaupunginlahti bay, some 7–10 km from the city centre....
Eco-village, Helsinki, 2002. - ItäkeskusItäkeskusItäkeskus is a quarter in the neighbourhood of Vartiokylä in the eastern part of Helsinki. The district's main attraction is the largest covered-in shopping mall in the Nordic countries, Itäkeskus shopping centre...
Shopping Centre, Helsinki; major extension, glass covered boulevard (interior, bridge and kiosk structures, street furniture, advertising systems) 1989-91. - RuoholahtiRuoholahtiRuoholahti is a quarter in Helsinki, part of the Länsisatama neighbourhood and Kampinmalmi district. The name means Grass Bay and is pronounced...
Residential Area, Helsinki: design of outdoor spaces (canal, parks, bridges, materials, lighting, street furniture, etc.), 1990-91. - Institut Finlandais (with Roland Schweitzer), 60, Rue des Ecoles, Paris, 1986-91.
- Helsinki Telephone Association, phone booth design, 1987.
- Helsinki Old Market Hall, Helsinki, renovation 1986.
- Art Museum, RovaniemiRovaniemiRovaniemi is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland. It is situated close to the Arctic Circle and is between the hills of Ounasvaara and Korkalovaara, at the confluence of the Kemijoki River and its...
, renovation, 1984-86. - Summer atelier of artist Tor Arne, Vänö Island, 1970.
- Moduli 225 (with Kristian GullichsenKristian GullichsenKristian Gullichsen is a Finnish architect. The son of Harry and Maire Gullichsen he was born into a family of industrialists, designers and artists....
), model industrial summer house, 1969-1971.
Quotes
"I see the task of architecture as the defense of the authenticity of human experience" (Juhani Pallasmaa, Encounters)External links
- http://www2.uiah.fi/opintoasiat/history2/pallas.htm
- PALLASMAA Juhani Uolevi International Who's Who. accessed September 1, 2006.
- Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota - Imagine Fund Distinguished Visiting Chairs
- Interview, 2010 at University of Minnesota