Lecture: Juhani Pallasmaa

Juhani Pallasmaa, a Finnish architect and author of the book, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, will present a lecture on April 9, hosted by the UT College of Architecture and Design.  The lecture will be held at Cox Auditorium in Alumni Memorial Building located at 1408 Middle Drive on UT’s campus.  It begins at 6 p.m., and doors open at 5 p.m.  The lecture is sponsored by General Shale and is free and open to the public.

Pallasmaa’s lecture, “Twelve Themes in My Work,” will lead the audience through the influences in his diverse career and deliver personal insights about architecture, design and the built environment.

Free parking is available beginning at 5 p.m. in Lot S9 on Phillip Fulmer Way and in Neyland Parking Garage, G10.

Watch Juhani Pallasmaa’s April 9 lecture.

Pallasmaa’s 50-year architecture career includes the Kamppi Centre in Helsinki with architects Helin & Co., Arrival Plaza at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Ruoholahti residential area in Helsinki, the Institut Finlandais in Paris and more.

Pallasmaa has written extensively, becoming one of the most respected voices in the world of architecture.  In 1996, he published The Eyes of the Skin:  Architecture and the Senses, a polemic that has become a classic on the essential role that the body and senses play in architecture.  The book continues to have a major impact on architectural thought and is one of the most popular required readings for architecture students around the world.  In all, he has written more than two dozen books and hundreds of essays that have been translated into more than 30 languages.

A student of phenomenology, the use of philosophy to understand the experience of the built environment, Pallasmaa applies his craft to many areas of design from the scale of the hand to the city, from interiors, furniture and sculpture to urban districts.  He is an accomplished graphic designer and curator of exhibits that have travelled the world.

As an educator, Pallasmaa served as professor of architecture and dean at the Helsinki University of Technology and headed the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki.  He has served as distinguished professor at universities in the United States and was scholar in residence at Taliesin, the estate of the American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.  In 1983, he started his own architecture practice, Arkkitehtitoimisto.

Awards for his architecture include the Arnold W. Brunner Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his contributions to architecture as an art; the Fritz Schumacher Prize; the Schelling Architecture Theory Prize; and the Finnish State Architecture Award.  In 1991, he was Finland’s representative at the Venice Biennale, and for five years, he served as a jury member for architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize.

The lecture is part of Architecture Week, April 6-14, an event of the American Institute of Architects East Tennessee Chapter in association with the AIA National Architecture Week.  Architecture Week includes the Pallasmaa lecture, Modernism home tour, art salon, contests and Knox Bricks & Blocks, a Lego-build challenge for school-age children on April 14.  For details, visit knoxbydesign.org.