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

About the Author

Juhani Pallasmaa is one of Finland's most distinguished architects and architectural thinkers. His previous positions include: Rector of the Institute of Industrial Arts, Helsinki; Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki; and Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology. He has also held visiting professorships at several universities worldwide. Pallasmaa is the author/editor of over thirty books, including The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (Academy, 1995 and John Wiley & Sons, 2005), The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (John Wiley & Sons, 2009) and The Embodied Image: Imagination and Imagery in Architecture (John Wiley & Sons, 2011). Peter MacKeith is Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St Louis. He has held academic positions and worked in design practices in both Finland and the United States, and has written and lectured extensively on Finnish and Nordic architecture.