Abstract :
In the 1990s, Juhani Pallasmaa wrote a compact, yet, eye-opening book expressing his growing concern about the architectural profession’s waning ability to reference all the senses of the body in the design process. Bit by bit, the perceptive chasm between the architect and architecture was widening both in the design process and in the cognitive experience of existing architecture. More than a decade later, these concerns have heightened as the ramifications of this design divide appear in the form of architecture whose divorced virtual quality has spilled over from the design process into built reality. The illusion of virtual reality – as achieved by 3D simulation in all its glories – has pulled the architect into a zone of false confidence where he/she feels that the design has come to life before it is built and that every corner and detail can be simulated and therefore understood. But can it be touched, smelt, tasted or heard? In fact, is even what we see on the screen anywhere close to what we see as we move bodily through its spaces?
