Description
THE EYES OF THE SKIN
First published in 1996, The Eyes of the Skin has become a classic of architectural theory. It asks the far-reaching question why, when there are five senses, has one single sense – sight – become so predominant in architectural culture and design? With the ascendancy of the digital and the all-pervasive use of the image electronically, it is a subject that has become all the more pressing and topical since the first edition’s publication in the mid-1990s. Juhani Pallasmaa argues that the suppression of the other four sensory realms has led to the overall impoverishment of our built environment, often diminishing the emphasis on the spatial experience of a building and architecture’s ability to inspire, engage and be wholly life enhancing.
For every student studying Pallasmaa’s classic text for the first time, The Eyes of the Skin is a revelation. It compellingly provides a totally fresh insight into architectural culture. This third edition meets readers’ desire for a further understanding of the context of Pallasmaa’s thinking by providing a new essay by architectural author and educator Peter MacKeith. This text combines both a biographical portrait of Pallasmaa and an outline of his architectural thinking, its origins and its relationship to the wider context of Nordic and European thought, past and present. The focus of the essay is on the fundamental humanity, insight and sensitivity of Pallasmaa’s approach to architecture, bringing him closer to the reader. This is illustrated by Pallasmaa’s sketches and photographs of his own work. The new edition also provides a foreword by the internationally renowned architect Steven Holl and a revised introduction by Pallasmaa himself.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Thin Ice by Steven Holl 6
Introduction
Touching the World by Juhani Pallasmaa 10
Part One
Vision and Knowledge 18
Critics of Ocularcentrism 22
The Narcissistic and Nihilistic Eye 24
Oral versus Visual Space 25
Retinal Architecture and the Loss of Plasticity 28
An Architecture of Visual Images 33
Materiality and Time 34
The Rejection of Alberti’s Window 37
A New Vision and Sensory Balance 40
Part Two
The Body in the Centre 43
Multi-Sensory Experience 44
The Significance of the Shadow 50
Acoustic Intimacy 53
Silence, Time and Solitude 55
Spaces of Scent 58
The Shape of Touch 60
The Taste of Stone 63
Images of Muscle and Bone 64
Images of Action 67
Bodily Identification 69
Mimesis of the Body 71
Spaces of Memory and Imagination 72
An Architecture of the Senses 75
The Task of Architecture 76
A Door Handle, A Handshake
An introduction to Juhani Pallasmaa and his work by Peter MacKeith 78
Notes 110
Index 123
Picture Credits 127
