The College of Architecture and Design has invited several nationally and internationally prominent architects, designers, historians and theorists to present their work as part of the Robert B. Church III Memorial Lecture Series this semester. The series continues this Thursday and Friday, March 5-6, with Juhani Pallasmaa, a world-renowned Finnish theorist and architect.
Free and open to the public, Pallasmaa’s presentations are the highlight lectures of the series and are sponsored by General Shale Brick, a leading exterior building materials manufacturer.
Pallasmaa’s first lecture, “Thought and Form,” will take place at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the McCarty Auditorium of the Art + Architecture Building and will be webstreamed live. Special viewing of the webstream as well as overflow seating will be available in the Reading Room.
Pallasmaa’s second lecture, “The Thinking Hand: Embodied and Existential Wisdom,” will focus on his upcoming book of the same name and will take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the McCarty Auditorium of the Art + Architecture Building. It also will be webstreamed live with overflow seating available in the Reading Room.
Pallasmaa has practiced architecture since the early 1960s and established his own office, Juhani Pallasmaa Architects, in Helsinki in 1983 after having collaborated with a number of architects over the course of 20 years. In addition to architectural design, he has been active in urban, product and graphic design.
Pallasmaa has taught and lectured widely in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, and published books and numerous essays on the philosophy and critique of architecture and the arts in more than 30 languages.
Pallasmaa has held positions as professor and dean at the Helsinki University of Technology (1991-97), State Artist Professor (1983-88), director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture (1978-83), associate professor at Haile Selassie I University, Addis Ababa (1972-74), and rector of the Institute of Industrial Arts, Helsinki (1970-71).
He has held visiting professorships at the Washington University in St. Louis (1999-2004), University of Virginia (1992) and Yale University (1993) and taught and lectured at numerous universities, conferences and symposia around the world.
Among Pallasmaa’s many books on architectural theory is “The Eyes of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses,” a book that has become a classic of architectural theory and is required reading in courses in many schools of architecture around the world.
Pallasmaa has received three honorary doctorates from University of Industrial Arts, Helsinki, 1993 (in the arts); Helsinki University of Technology, 1998 (in technology); and Estonian Academy of Arts, 2004 (in the arts). He is also Honorary Professor of the International Academy of Architecture.
Pallasmaa has received several awards including the International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 2009; Silver Plaquette of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, 2006; Finland Prize, 2000; The International Union of Architects’ Award for Architectural Criticism, 1999; Fritz Schumacher Prize (Germany), 1997; Russian Federation Architecture Award, 1996; Helsinki City Culture Award, 1993; and Finnish National Architecture Award, 1992.
Continuing architectural education credit can be earned at each of these lectures.
For more information, visit the College of Architecture and Design’s Web site, http://www.arch.utk.edu, or call 974-5267.