Encounters 2 is a follow-up to Encounters 1: Architectural Essays and it binds together the most recent essays and lectures by Juhani Pallasmaa. Pallasmaa (b. 1936) is a Finnish architect, educator, theorist and intellect, and one of the most leading international figures in phenomenological thinking in architecture.
The essays and lectures by Juhani Pallasmaa address the ethics of architecture from the biological perspective of humanity. Since 2005, Pallasmaa has become interested in the application of neuroscience to the theories of an architectural experience. Encounters 2 includes Pallasmaa’s theoretical developments on the concepts of existential space, psychological functionalism and the atmosphere. The book also contains his fresh interpretations of Finnish architects and artists such as Alvar Aalto, Reima Pietilä, Mikko Heikkinen, Markku Komonen, Juhana Blomstedt, Tapio Wirkkala, Aki Kaurismäki and many others. Encounters 2 also includes a new interview “Poetics and Life” conducted by Professor Peter MacKeith, the editor and specialist in Pallasmaa’s thinking.
The ethical task of architecture is to defend our biological essence and historicity in order to root us in the essential mental realities of life. This is the most important time perspective for the art of architecture.
— Juhani Pallasmaa, “Space, place, memory and imagination. The temporal dimension of existential space” (2007). Encounters 2: Architectural Essays, p. 47.
See also Encounters 1.