BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303

SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (August 2017)

Name: Kimberly Ann Aussie ID No.: 0325881

Lecturer: Mr. Prince Tutorial Time:
Reader/Text Title: A - Space, Place, Memory and Synopsis No: 3
Imagination: The Temporal Dimension of Author: Jujani Pallasmaa
Existential Space

The text, “Space, Place, Memory and Imagination: The Temporal Dimension of Existential Space”
by Jujani Pallasmaa expresses architecture in the sense of time, perspective and memory universally. The
author describes how architecture is normally to depicted in the future, where a majority of architecture has
been modernised by futuristic bias. Within the presence of modernity, the appreciation of newness is seen
as an aesthetic and artistic value with the strategic necessity of culture consumption and materialistic
culture.

In the author’s opinion, human construction holds the responsibility in preserving the past for
society to experience the culture and tradition making endless time tolerable, where architecture may
replace meaningless reality with transformed reality, not only domesticating space but also defence against
time. In my opinion, I agree with Pallasmaa’s point as architecture has the ability to hold time as a pausing
moment. Time passes as our surroundings change, but the whole idea and structure of architecture makes
it possible to revisit a familiar moment as the building stays still despite being everchanging. People come
and go and once a nostalgia hits, playbacks of memories start running in the still moment of architecture.
After all, we are what we remember. Pallasmaa argues that, architecture is served as a compelling memory
device where they materialize and preserve the course of time making it visible, concretize remembrance by
containing memories as well as stimulate and inspire us to imagine. I think that buildings as such hold a big
part in evoking certain memories, familiarity and a poetic sense of perceptions. Acting as a background
setting, architecture is able to stir different experiences and spark a conversational experience.

In conclusion, the author discusses how architecture is vital in creating memories to society with the
quote, “The task of architecture, also, is “to make visible how the world touches us””. I agree with the writer’s
point of view as architecture as a physical structure ultimately holds the content of memories around us
besides its functional purposes of a space.

Word Count: 332 Mark Grade

Assessed by: Date Page No.