An architecture of the

seven senses
by JUHANI PALLASMAA

Issue :
- architecture should engage all of our senses.
- believes that modern architecture is losing some of the
sensuality that architecture has embodied in the past.
The 7 Senses
Odor/ Smell
- Strongest memory. Do not remember
appearance but particular smell may
wake us secretly.

Touch
- Connects us with time and tradition
door as the handshake to a building

Eyes/ Sight
- Sense of separation and distance
- eg: when stay close to someone, we will
close our eyes

Sound
- Sound allows us to imagine a space
without actually seeing it.
- Eg: sound in an empty space and space
full of objects

Taste
- Pallasmaa writes about how certain
colours, textures, and details can be
sensed orally
- eg: on a cliff, taste death

Skin
-Traces the spaces of temperature.
-Eg. Cool shadow under tree vs warmth
in a spot of sun
-Eg. Standing barefoot- warmth of
stone heated by sun gives healing
experience and sensation of home

Body
- Dimensioning and proportioning
system
- Internalizes a building in his body;
movement, balances, distance and
scale
Touch : Texture of natural stones
Taste : silence of gothic cathedral
Smell : body odour of group of
believers
Sight : vault of heaven
Skin: feel sacred
body : huge empty space
Soundecho of roman's footsteps