A Response To: J Pallasmaa 'The Eyes of the Skin'

"Through vision, we touch the sun and the stars."  - Martin Jay

This reader was given to us by our lecturer, and we were asked to respond to it on here, our blogs. I think the extract is an interesting read and brings forth new and different perspectives which are not normally considered. For instance, the first few pages highlight how our body not just lives in the city, but is also connected to the place, and will forever be connected to it. 

Personally, I agree with the quote from Body, Memory and Architecture, where it states "To at least some extent every place can be remembered, partly because it is unique, but partly because it had affected our bodies and generated enough associations to hold it in our personal worlds." 

For me, I will always remember places such as my childhood home, grandparents homes and university houses, long after I have left there. Not only because I have many memories that I associate with the place, but also the way these places have had an effect on my body, both physically and mentally. 

"Architecture is essentially an extension of nature into the man-made realm..." This is an interesting quote which I have chosen to focus on as the extract describes how when walking through a forest all of the senses are awakened due to the constant interaction. My brain instantly started thinking about biophilic cities, in which your senses would be awakened to the views, smells, sounds etc of the plants and wildlife. How exciting it must be to live somewhere in which everything changes so frequently, not just with new buildings, but with plants blooming in different periods of the year or month. 

I also think that Bernard Berenson's suggestion as to how to experience artistic work is interesting when compared to how we experience architecture. It is not often that people within cities or towns actually lookup. We look at the shops or the surroundings of the buildings, but we don't actually look at the architecture as a whole. How a building has inspired another, or how two buildings create a juxtaposition. 

As a landscape architect I think our work could be overlooked, it is not often that the average person admires the placement of a tree or the paving used. However, we know that the placement of trees would actually draw the eye around the space. The paving used could be symbolic of what was once there, could be a material that is common to the area, or used because of its durability within a busy square. That is why designers such as Jacques Wirtz used evergreens to create clouds of foliage throughout a garden, or Martha Schwartz uses unique shapes and colours to gain attention. We too as designers, must find some way to ensure that our works of art are noticed.