We are pleased to announce that Mr. Juhani Pallasmaa, one of Finland’s pre-eminent architects, will be the next Plym Distinguished Professor for the 2010 Academic Fall Semester.  Mr. Pallasmaa’s visit encompasses the entire academic fall semester so as to impact the fifth and sixth year design studios.

Juhani Pallasmaa will be in residence at the School of Architecture’s Erlanger House for the fall term.  Professor Kevin Hinders will serve as the faculty host and collaborate with Juhani on the development of a graduate studio.  Professor Hinders will also coordinate Juhani’s various activities such as lectures, symposiums, etc.

As part of Juhani’s Plym tenure, and coordinated with Juhani, will be the development of a special lecture series to include Alberto Perez-Gomez and Carlos Jiminez, as well as three special Finnish artists who share his intellectual and theoretical leanings:  Ceramist, Kristina Riska; Composer, Kalevi Aho and Artist, Osmo Rauhala.  Along with Juhani Pallasmaa, all will share lectures on their discipline in support of the Pallasmaa “psychological, phenomenological and architectural observations.”

While a maximum of 16 graduate students will participate in the Pallasmaa/Hinders studio, all students, especially graduate students, will be directly impacted by Juhani’s presence.

We are tremendously excited to have Juhani Pallasmaa as our next visiting Distinguished Plym Professor.  A complete schedule of his visit is attached.

David M. Chasco, AIA
Director and Professor

Biography

Juhani Pallasmaa (born 1936 in Hameenlinna, Finland) is a Helsinki-based architect, exhibition designer, and town planner.  Pallasmaa is also a prolific essayist and the former director of both the Finnish Museum of Architecture and the architecture program at Helsinki University of Technology, where he graduated in 1966. A winner of the Finnish State Architecture Award, he lectures widely and has been a visiting professor in Ethiopia and the United States.

Among his numerous recognized projects are: Moduli 225 (1969 with Kristian Gullichsen),  Atelier for Tor Arne, Vano Island (1970), the Rovaniemi Art Museum (1986), the granite column entrance for the installation “Driveway Square” at the Cranbrook Academy (1994), and the Sami Museum and Northern Lapland Visitors Center (1998).

His critical publications include: Alvar Aalto Furniture, 1987; Language of Wood: Wood in Finnish Sculpture, Design, and Architecture, 1987; The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, 1996 and second in 2005; Pallasmaa, Juhani and Andrei Gozak, The Melnikhov House: Moscow (1927-1929), 1996; and Alvar Aalto: Villa Mairea 1938-39, 1998; The Thinking Hand, 2009; The Embodied Image, 2010 (to be released).