Response to Pallasmaa’s The Eyes of the Skin
Within his book, The Eyes of the Skin, Juhani Pallasmaa presents multiple opinions and views on both the role of architecture in society, and how it is, or should be, experienced. Quite a bit of what he was saying related to the explorations of Pierre Thibault’s,Villa du Lac du Castor, this semester. Thibault’s concept of integrating the world into his architecture by bringing the experience of the forest, the views, and the silence into his villa truly articulate Pallasmaa’s points and incorporate his theories into many of the explorations that have been undertaken.
Experiencing architecture requires all of our senses, as we see the world from a specific view, smell the materials and aromas, feel the textures of the structure, and listen to the sounds around us. Without the ability to fully experience an architectural work – and how it connects the inhabitants to the world around it – the architecture loses much of its purpose and magnificence. Thibault’s Villa incorporates the senses into each aspect, as the materials, orientation of facades, and site draw you in to see, and touch, and hear all there is. He focused on the silence of the forest, and the calmness of the untouched environment, while incorporating the warmth of a central hearth and the comfort of a few more private spaces. These changing qualities between public and private spaces are integrated into how one would experience each room and space, and how their senses would be amplified by each feature.
In addition, the ever constant connection between Thibault’s work and the outdoors, draws on Pallasmaa’s examination of the concept of peripheral vision. Within his explanation he presents the forest as an example of a spatial and bodily experience that invigorates the senses. Thibault’s use of the forest features, such as the columns and materials, offer the feeling of being within this spatial and bodily experience that Pallasmaa describes, while also being inside a man-made structure. This combination of natural and man-made is something that I have been exploring. Thibault uses the local materials, as if taking them out of their natural origin, and makes them into a structure that is man-made. Through my analysis I found that although his work is what I have labeled as an “Eco Structure” due to it’s incorporation of the site, materials, and experiential qualities, it is still something that is clearly man-made and stands out as such. I have also looked into landscape architects and other artists who are doing similar things, all of whom seem to try to incorporate or bring meaning to the environment, while still leaving their obvious and intentional mark on their work.
The final connection I found between the Pallasmaa reading and my explorations was the connection to time. He stated that architecture can be a great reference for time, especially when made out of natural materials that show age and change. Thibault, similarly, has spent much of his career looking at time and creating works that “breath with” their environments, changing and deteriorating over periods of time. This concept has been brought into my explorations, as I am creating installations and works that change and return to their natural state through natural occurrences and over time.