BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

(ARC61303)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (MARCH 2018)
Name: Wee Sue Wen ID No.: 0322633
Lecturer: Mr Nicholas Tutorial Time:
Reader/Text Title: The Eyes of The Skin Synopsis No: 3
Author: Juhani Pallasmaa
In the text, J. Pallasmaa is portraying the human’s sensory organs play the main role on giving the individuals
to feel upon the architecture, the world.
One feels oneself in the city and the city dwells in them. He explains the body is within the world just as
the heart is within the body. This fact is portraying how one understand space and how architecture gives the
feel by integrating elements, scale, color and texture. Human body behaves differently depends on what the
architecture gives. Bodies and movements always interact with the architecture and environment by creating
notion of body image to redefine ourselves with the place. All of the man-made realms are providing ground
for perception, experience and understanding of the world. In my opinion, one’s sense of reality becomes
stronger by constant interaction. The interaction of body with architecture happens everywhere and anywhere
it can be, from a town to a city. Art of architecture felt by the human body is layered by temporal, perceptional
dimensions.
Multi-sensory of human body is important to define the qualities of space, matter and scale of architecture.
Since haptic experiences occurs more prominently than visual, touching allows us to feel the texture of a
surface but visual come into play to confirm what was felt, defining reality. It was accentuated that sense of
touch creates depth and emotion to surfaces, satisfying one’s curiosity. Visual itself is not enough to concretize
the art of architecture, instead it should be experienced in their embodied material and spiritual presence. In
my opinion, one should experience and feel a space or surface through its body and senses, let memory take
place, in order for them to understand an imagery of similar things.
As a conclusion, body memory produced through experiencing is very important for a significant memory
to be imprinted in our heart. Architecture should have identities harmoniously combined to delight the people’s
visual aspect. These are the factors that will affect dwellers’ choice of place to fulfill what they desire. As an
architecture student I would like to emphasize experience the reality is as important to feel the essence that
is expressed in other’s architecture work, therefore what we apply into our design works well as a real
experience instead of pure imagination that does not guarantee to be successfully expressed in the art.

Word Count: 389 Mark Grade

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