BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303

SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (August 2017)

Name: Syed Aswad Al Jaffree ID No.: 0318625

Lecturer: Mr. Prince Favis Isip Tutorial Time:
Reader/Text Title: Towards a Critical Synopsis No: 4
Regionalism Author: Kenneth Frampton

In the overall of this text, Pallasmaa discusses the relationship between memory, body, experience, emotion
and place, and how these elements intermingle to construct our reality. "As I settle in a space, the space
settles in me", Pallasmaa states, implying the constant involuntary interpretation our mind and body conduct
of our experiences of our surroundings, and our reactions to suit ourselves in our current setting, in constant
exchange with each other. These experiences we internalize are not simply recorded into our cerebral
memory, but into our body memory. In reference to a passage from Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time,
the protagonist identifies his location from his library of memories simply through sleepy bodily gestures. “I
have invested and left parts of my body and my mind in these anonymous and insignificant rooms”,
Pallasmaa writes, implying that the experiences of his travels are as much documented into his body as into
his mind, adding to the library of memories he would continue to project to his future experiences.
This excerpt of the text demonstrates the power and capacity of the memory of the body to discern our
surroundings, even before the mind consciously registers it, as well as the ability of body memory to project
past experiences towards its environment. Pallasmaa also states "A landscape or work of architecture
cannot, however, create feelings". Here he implies that emotions that we experience in our surroundings are
the evocation of the emotions that exist within ourselves, provoked from external sources, instead of
emotions literally being evoked from the mere sight of a building or landscape. Furthermore, in reference to
a quote by the poet Jean Tardieu, "Let us assume a wall: what takes place behind it?” Pallasmaa states that
architects erect walls but rarely bear in mind the meaning or impact they would have on the emotional
perspective of the person, rather focusing on the aesthetic values they possess. Pallasmaa praises instead
the ability of artists to grasp these emotions with greater sensitivity in mind towards the emotional
perspective of people and to project these images in their art.
In conclusion, it can be noted that memory and emotion play a large role in the way we experience
architecture, and architecture should be designed with greater sensitivity toward the human perspective,
perhaps taking a page from the playbook of artists into consideration.

Word Count: 400 Mark Grade

Assessed by: Date Page No. 194 - 201