The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and The Senses

 

“The work must give immediately, at once, the shock of life, the sensation of breathing” - Constantin Brâncuşi

According to Juhani Pallasamaa, empathy in architecture is urgently important, “The talent of imagining human situations is more important for an architect than the gift of fantasising spaces”. Pallasamaa highlights the significance of empathetic imagination, declaring that the “true qualities of architecture are not geometric and formal, intellectual or even aesthetic, as they are existential, embodied and emotional experiences.” Unlike formal imagination, concerned with geometry, form and the visual frontality of the architectural drawing, empathetic imagination evokes human sensory and emotive experiences. 

As someone who is compassionate by nature and deeply empathetic, Pallasamaa’s words resonate within me; I am truly inspired by his design philosophy. In order to create meaningful places that better the human experience we must come to understand how space works as a sensory encounter. In his classic book on architectural theory, “The Eyes of the Skin”, Pallasamaa declares an exploration into the senses and the ways in which we consider architecture as a multisensory experience. 

In chapter 2, Pallasamaa introduces the fundamental notion that the human body is “the centre of the experiential world”. He goes on to explain how we are connected to the environment through our senses, stating that it is our senses which “define the interface between the skin and the environment”. However, Pallasamaa argues that the dominance of vision has led to the disappearance of the sensory qualities of space. He explains that the intrinsic role of architecture is to address all the senses simultaneously in order to strengthen our sense of reality and self; to direct our consciousness back to the world. He declares that great spaces are not about aesthetics, “they are about life”. 

To his students Pallasamaa expresses the importance of experiencing ‘live architecture’ explaining that when architecture is presented in a photograph something essential is missing. An architectural work is not meant to be experienced as a collection of isolated visual pictures, but in its fully embodied spiritual presence. He depicts a live encounter with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, describing how the smells of the forest, sounds of the river, surfaces, textures and colours of the house intertwine into a “uniquely full experience.” 

As a landscape architecture student I often find myself excessively absorbed in a 2D masterplan or CAD drawing, however, as Pallasamaa argues “the visual frontality of the architectural drawing is lost in the real experience of architecture”. Thus, as I embark upon my career as a landscape architect, I must begin to understand how space works as a multisensory encounter. Ultimately, I want to design places that provoke a sensory experience and encourage inward reflection. I want to create spiritual spaces that provide a meditative experience, where people can fully immerse themselves in the surrounding environment. Through doing this I hope to truly enhance the human experience.