Text 4: The Geometry of Feeling

1. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
(ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2017)
Name: ONG EUXUAN ID No.: 0319050
Lecturer: AR. PRINCE FAVIS ISIP Tutorial Time:
Reader/Text Title: The Geometry of Feeling: A
Look at Phenomenology of Architecture (1996)
Synopsis No: 4
Author: JUHANI PALLASMAA
In ‘The Geometry of Feeling’, author Juhani Pallasmaa deals with emotions of familiarity and feelings
that are perceived by the users of an architecture, rather than the technicality and technology of the
built form.
Architecture saw its evolution as a profession over the years. Pallasmaa argues that architecture is more
than just plays of forms. Architectural elements have been strictly reduced to the artistic expression and
visual sense of an architect. But in reality, architecture holds a strong relationship between the formal
composition of an architectural form, and how architecture is experienced. Pallasmaa implies that
emotions and memories of a building is often overlooked due to the overwhelming education of arts
and visuals instilled in architects. He suggests that the form of a building only triggers our emotions
through what it represents.
The author then compares architecture to the visual symbolism of art. He implies that images of art are
dimensional not because of the artistic visuals, but because of its power to translate strong emotions
into art. Similarly, architecture should possess association to the people who live in them or utilize them.
Apart from visual arts, there are also connections of architecture in other elements that would trigger
great emotions and memories, such as literature, photography and film.
In the book Pallasmaa also mentions that considerations of an architecture should be familiarity and
feelings that would trigger the users first, then practical purposes and other conditions second, though
the two should coexist and complement one another. Buildings are mythical tools to evoke the feelings
of a user, thus an emotion experienced by them should be triggered by the condition of the building.
This experience shall stimulate and sensitize the user as a whole, allowing them to grasp the structure
of the architecture.
In a nutshell, I am moved by Pallasmaa’s theory of perceiving feelings in the arts of architecture. I find
it rather interesting that the author thinks in a way which architecture should be reflected in the actions
of the users, rather than a place or an object to be used by the users. He believes, and I agree in the
power of evoking and triggering emotions out of an experience, and I think that the poetics of a building
is what draws the distinction between the practical purposes of architecture today.
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