Juhani Pallasmaa is a Finnish architect as an exhibition designer, writer, teacher and practicing architect. As director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture from 1978 to 1983, he was germane in internationalising its activities and exhibiting over a decade ago the works of such architects as Tadao Ando, Alvaro Siza and Daniel Libeskind, who only later became renowned throughout the world. He runs his own architect's office - Arkkitehtitoimisto Juhani Pallasmaa KY - in Helsinki, but to date his body of practical work remains comparatively small.
Pallasmaa became universally known through his lectures and books on architectural theory and his interest in phenomenology. In his widely read 1996 book "The Eyes of the Skin. Architecture and the Senses." he stresses the importance of experience in architectural production which today is neglected by most practitioners.
During the course of his career, he has also served as State Artist Professor (1983-88); Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture (1978- 83); Associate Professor at the Haile Selassie I University, Addis Abeba (1972-74); Director of the Exhibition Department at the Museum of Finnish Architecture (1968-72, 74-83); and Rector of the College of Crafts and Design(1970-72). He is currently the Ruth & Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, U.S. as well as the current Plym Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, U.S.
Juhani Pallasmaa is currently a member of the Pritzker Prize Award jury.
All our texts and many of our images appear under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License (CC BY-SA). All our content is written and edited by our community.