Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A Letter to Juhani Pallasmaa
I have often said and always meant it when I have said that one of the most influential moments in my education was an afternoon spent with architect, professor and author Juhani Pallasmaa. And without a doubt, I owe him a great deal of respect and gratitude.
While pursuing my undergraduate degree, I had the opportunity to spend a year abroad and as part of the study abroad architecture program, we were exposed to occasional guest lecturers and design seminars. One late winter/early spring day, my fellow expatriates and I were treated to an impromptu discussion with Mr. Pallasmaa before his scheduled lecture at L'Ecole d'Architecture de Versailles. As with many events in life, especially those that occur before one establishes an educated/experienced perspective, I don't think I understood the opportunity that presented itself to our class that day.
First of all, I do not think that any of us had read anything written by Mr. Pallasmaa, nor had we been exposed to perception, phenomenology, or philosophy to a degree that would have aided in our comprehension of the subtler aspects of the architectural discourse. This was a man whose presentation of Bachelard went over our heads and questioned the ethical grounds of the architecture of Rem Koolhaas. I knew then that he was coming to us from a realm of architecture to which I had never been formally exposed.
Many of the ideas and themes that Mr. Pallasmaa presented took awhile to work themselves into my understanding of design, architecture, and urban planning. Phenomenology and the study of human perception and experience in architecture were concepts that were easy to comprehend on the surface but impossible to grasp in whole. At the time, I had not consciously observed the role of perception or studied its many facets, but eventually, after a self imposed introduction to Hegel, Heidegger, Bachelard and Merleau-Ponty, the study of the phenomenology of perception became the foundation of my understanding of Architecture; probably marking the moment that I identified one of the most profound differences between architecture and Architecture.
So, as a mark of gratitude, I have written a brief letter to Mr. Pallasmaa:
Dear Mr. Juhani Pallasmaa:
To begin, I feel that I must first begin with an apology. I am sorry for taking such diligent notes during your talk at Versailles in the spring of 2005. You had asked us not to so that we may be at ease to listen and discuss; but I took notes anyways and I am glad that I did. To this day, I go back to my old sketchbook and read the notes. "Stop planning your life" and "read passionately" are highlights of the the first passage, but the rest of the notes outline an ambitious reading list, an introduction to phenomenology, a concise but personal definition of architecture, and a lifetime's worth of advice. And for all of these things, I thank you. Without them, I do not know where I would be, but now that I have them, I'll take them everywhere.
Sincerely,
BL
No comments:
Post a Comment