Juhani Pallasmaa
1) How can we understand and determine a person’s experience of architecture?
As a starting point, we can gather some understanding of a person’s experience of architecture by reflecting on our own experience and relationship with that work of architecture. While questioning our own single experience or single point-of-view does not give a comprehensive answer, it can however reveal to us some universal experiences. As Pallasmaa discussed multisensory experience and cited examples of “the sound space created by drops of water falling occasionally,” “the urban space created by the sound of church bells,” “the sense of distance that we feel when the sound of a night train pierces our dreams,” and “the smell space of a bakery or sweet shop,” I felt surprised to have an immediate connection to his writing that is otherwise quite dense and theoretical. I felt surprised to also immediately understand his question of why “abandoned, unheated houses have the same smell of death everywhere.” While the details of these sounds and smells may not be the same, they certainly conjure similar images and recognition among most people.
2) How do you interpret Pallassmaa’s ideas about the following?
a) All art emanates from the body…..
In a sense, if we look at art as a way that humans try to organize and interpret the world, all art does emanate from people. Art does not exist on its own without someone experiencing it as art. Something as mundane as a person walking down the street becomes art when someone takes a photograph, makes a documentary, or even makes an observation. Pallassmaa uses the understanding of art as human connection to symbols to understand what makes architecture effective.
b) Early childhood memories inform us and form us as we grow up…..
Childhood memories certainly affect us as we grow up. They were our first experiences and impressions of the world — which are often strong and predominantly intuitive. As Pallasmaa discusses, our childhood memories may not consist of the details of a door or a window that can be directly implanted in our architectural designs, but we remember how a room felt or the views outside of a window. These types of experiential memories guide us in our design inquiries.
c) Other arts create the importance of place and experience…..
The other arts’ roles in creating the importance of place is especially apparent today with the abundance of information technology and popular media. For example, the Harry Potter books brought Hogwarts Castle into the imagination of people across the world. Although this place is fictional, people feel a strong connection to the stone fortress and its embodiment of mystery, magic, the medieval ages, and English tradition. After the release of the movies, many students cited that the Great Hall in Hogwarts Castle looks like the dining hall of their schools. This connection of the everyday dining hall to a fictional one creates a new experience and relationship to the place.
d) Loneliness and silence of buildings…..
When Pallasmaa discusses loneliness as “the basic feeling given by architecture” and buildings’ silence, I wonder what examples of architecture he calls to mind. I agree that Louis Kahn’s work can conjure experiences of loneliness and silence, but not all architecture is so quiet (such as the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX). Some architecture holds many clues into other people’s lives and makes you feel that you are stepping through someone else’s life and makes you wonder what the stories are… unless that is what Pallasmaa is referring to — the fact that as you experience an architecture, you ask yourself many questions, but the building may not necessarily “speak” back to you and may not answer your questions.
—Tina