Nov. 30, Juhani Pallasmaa

Juhani Pallasmaa is a distinguished Finnish architect, author and educator. He is a former director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, rector of the Institute of Industrial Arts and professor and dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. He has held visiting professorships at Yale University, University of Virginia, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Minnesota and several other institutions around the world. He is currently the Distinguished Plym Professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Pallasmaa runs his architectural office, Juhani Pallasmaa Architects, in Helsinki. In addition to urban design and buildings, his architectural practice spans projects form exhibition design and film to product and graphic design. His architectural work has been recognized by the Finnish State Architecture Award, the Helsinki City Culture Award, the Fritz Schumacher Prize in Germany and the Russian Federation Architecture Award. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a recipient of the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics and the International Academy of Architecture. He is a current jury member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Pallasmaa believes that only through the unity of mind and body can craftsmanship and artistic work be fully realized. He is the author/editor of 24 books including The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture (2009), Encounters: Architectural Essays (2005), The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture of the Senses(1995/2005), The Aalto House (2003), Juhani Pallasmaa: Sensuous Minimalism(2002),The Architecture of the Image: Existential Space in Cinema (2001), Tapio Wirkkala (2000), Alvar Aalto: Villa Mairea 1938-39 (1998), The Melnikov House (1996) and Animal Architecture (1995).

The Mort Karp Memorial Lecture is sponsored by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.