Explore the relationship between architecture and the sensory experience with the fourth edition of this groundbreaking work
First published in 1996, The Eyes of the Skin is a classic of architectural theory. It asks the far-reaching question why, when there are five senses, is one single sense - sight - so predominant in architectural culture and design? With the ascendancy of the digital and the all-pervasive use of the image electronically, the subject is all the more pressing and topical since the first edition’s publication. Juhani Pallasmaa argues that the suppression of the other four sensory realms has led to the overall impoverishment of our built environment, often diminishing the emphasis on the spatial experience of a building and architecture’s ability to inspire, engage and be wholly life enhancing.
For a student reading this text for the first time, The Eyes of the Skin is a revelation. It provides a fresh, compelling insight into architectural culture which continues to inspire more than a quarter-century after its initial publication.
The fourth edition of The Eyes of the Skin also features: - The author’s latest views on the emphasis of place, unfocused perception and existential experience - Updates and clarifications throughout, to reinforce how our sense of self in the world remains our most important sense with the greatest architectural impact - An updated Foreword that touches on the current understanding of the seminal importance of the existential sense
The Eyes of the Skin is a must-read for all architecture students, who will find its insights transformative.
Table of Contents
Foreword vi
Introduction Touching the World 2
by Juhani Pallasmaa
Part One Vision and Knowledge 10
Critics of Ocularcentrism 14
The Narcissistic and Nihilistic Eye 16
Oral Versus Visual Space 17
Retinal Architecture and the Loss of Plasticity 20
An Architecture of Visual Images 24
Materiality and Time 25
The Rejection of Alberti’s Window 28
A New Vision and Sensory Balance 30
Part Two The Body in the Centre 33
Multi- Sensory Experience 34
The Significance of the Shadow 39
Acoustic Intimacy 42
Silence, Time and Solitude 43
Spaces of Scent 46
The Shape of Touch 48
The Taste of Stone 50
Images of Muscle and Bone 51
Images of Action 54
Bodily Identification 55
Mimesis of the Body 56
Spaces of Memory and Imagination 60
An Architecture of the Senses 61
The Task of Architecture 62
A Door Handle, A Handshake An introduction to Juhani Pallasmaa and his work by Peter MacKeith 64
Apertures 72
Poetics 81
Notes 88
Index 99
Picture Credits 103
