BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURETHEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2016) [5 MARKS]

NAME: MEERA NAZREEN ID: 0309630LECTURER: MS IDA TUTORIAL TIME: 2-4SYNOPSIS NO: 3 READER TITLE: THE EYES OF THE SKINhe proclaim

ARCHITECTURE AND THE SENSESAUTHOR: JUHANI PALLASMAA

This book written by Juhani Pallasmaa, highlighting the importance of human’s sensory in regards to

architecture. He proclaimed that “a sensory architecture in opposition to the prevailing visual

understanding of the art of building.” In the second part of the book, which is the main of this

summary is, Pallasmaa survey the interactions of the senses.

From Merleau-Ponty’s quote in the The Body Is the Centre, which the author of this book pointed

out, “sensory experience is unstable and alien to natural perception”, I think what he was trying to

point out is that one’s experience to a building or architecture could differ from another. The

experience and understanding of an architecture would not be as impressive and significant if the

experience were to be told to you by someone else. When we go out there and experience the

architecture ourselves, we are creating our own image for the world. Apart from that, each

experience an individual go through affects them differently.

The next part of part two is the Multi-Sensory Experience. Pallasmaa mentioned that our vision affect

the other senses of our body, meaning that our experience is strengthen by our multiple sensory. He

gave us an example which is through a walk in the forest. The feeling of being within the forest

invoked by peripheral vision, our other senses tingle as well.

Pallasmaa gives an example for each sense in questions through the description of nature. By being

in nature, all of the sensory are being used, thus will completes the experience of the space. He also

links the sense of smell with memory, saying that it is the strongest mediums added to an individual’s

memory of an experience.

Basically I think that the author of this book is discussing on the importance of all the senses in a

design process. If an architecture possesses a great combination of all the senses, it would be

further appreciated as well as being remembered more as the experience would be unforgettable.

WORD COUNT: 331 DATE: 30th May 2016

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