Une conférence de Juhani Pallasmaa à Lausanne dans le cadre d'un important colloque

DR

Voir le programme en ligne sur http://archizoom.epfl.ch/empirical_fr

"Pour les lecteurs exclusivement francophones, voici toutefois un ‘’tuyau’’. Juhani Pallasmaa, l’un des conférenciers, est connu par la traduction française de « The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture rand the senses » qui a été traduit sous le titre de « Le Regard des Sens » (Linteau, 2010). Son œuvre très abondante en langue anglaise, qui accorde de plus en plus d’intérêt aux ambiances spatiales (architecturales, cinématographiques), reste très peu connue dans les pays francophones. Il accorde aux ambiances une telle importance qu’il qualifie souvent leur perception de ''6e sens’'.

he Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, hosts the conférence embodiment in architecture & neuroscience: on 4 May 2016, 13:30-19 hours. EPFL's renowned neurosciences research centre has invited two distinguished guest speakers with an architecture background and a keen concern for humane and sensory design.

One of them is architect and architectural thinker Juhani Pallasmaa, whose ‘'The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses’’ (Wiley, 2005) is today one of the most read books on the architecture curriculum in Anglo—Saxon countries. Juhani Pallasma has increasingly turned his attention to atmospheres over the past few years, of which his compelling article « Space, place and atmosphere », published in "Architectural Atmospheres: On the Experience and Politics of Architecture » (Birkhäuser, 2014) bears witness. The article is an original contribution to the thinking and practice of architectural atmospheres : it has the poetic urgency of a keen ‘’sensor'’ or ‘’perceiver'’ of spaces and atmospheres, all the more precious, that it comes with a great deal of (professional and personal) architectural experience. It does not look at the production of atmospheres (a strength of CRESSON and partners), nor does it evolve a ‘’classical'' theoretical philosophical discourse (such as in new German phenomenology) on them. It conveys a sense of distilled embodied experiences, that makes Pallasmaa’s work so inspiring. Atmospheres are of such importance to Pallasmaa, that he calls them frequently ''the sixth sense’'.

Also speaking is Harry Fancis Mallgrave, a leading proponent of the dialogue between architecture and neurosciences and with a concern for the design implications of this emerging dialogue. The link between atmospheres and his thinking (‘’Architecture and Embodiment: ...", Routledge, 2013 and ‘’The Architect’s Brain: …’', Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) may seem less immediate, but consider his statement ''You perceive a building’s atmosphere before meeting its symbols’’ (in ''Mind in Architecture: Neuroscience, Embodiment and the Future of Design'', eds. Robinson/Pallasmaa, MIT Press, 2015) and the connections begin to come to the fore.

The relationship between ‘’hard’’ and ‘’soft’’ sciences is often an uneasy one. Dance and neurosciences being an exception.

The conference on 4 May at EPFL has all the promising signs of a mutually enriching exchange.

Ressources/Ressources:

http://www.anfarch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Helsinki-2013-Architecture-Neuroscience.pdf

http://www.anfarch.org/news/p1531/ (there is a link to the pdf publication of the 2015 Helsinki conference ‘’Architecture and Empathy’’, which includes a talk by neurophysiologist Vittorio Gallese, a scientist with a real openness to art)

http://www.finnisharchitecture.fi/2014/05/architecture-and-atmosphere-seminar-2-june-2014/ (there should be a pdf version with talks by Jean-Paul Thibaud and Gernot Böhme, but I couldn’t trace a link) "

Marcus Weisen