Questions of Perception

This new edition of Questions of Perception brings back into print one of the most important architectural theory treatise of recent years. Authored by noted architectural scholars Alberto Pérez-Gómez and Juhani Pallasmaa as well as the preeminent architect Steven Holl, the three separate essays are thematically linked: each one tries to explain the role human perception and phenomenological experience play in architecture. In particular, Holl -- who was named by Time magazine as the most important architect of his generation and the designer of the much-lauded Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University and the highly anticipated Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art addition -- lucidly explicates the importance of intuition in the construction and experience of built space. Holl explains his search for phenomenological experience thus: "To open architecture to questions of perception, we must suspend disbelief, disengage the rational half of the mind, and simply play and explore. Reason and skepticism must yield to a horizon of discovery."