Architect Juhani Pallasmaa has donated the library he amassed over the course of his career to the collections of the Architecture & Design Museum. Part of this extensive book collection is now accessible to the public in Pallasmaa’s Reference Library, located in the museum’s new Eteläranta 6 event space. The selection has been curated by an expert from the Architecture & Design Museum.
Text: Juhani Pallasmaa
“As a consequence of my early circle of friends outside the sphere of architecture –
painters and sculpture, writers and poets, composers and musicians, philosophers and scientists – I became interested in the world beyond my planned profession. Already as a student during the 1960s, I made numerous trips abroad to make exhibitions of Finnish architecture for the newly established Museum of Finnish Architecture. A decade later, I continued my travels to give lectures, teach and participate in juries. Later I also received invitations to several visiting professorships and was also invited to longer stays in several countries, and I also began to have design commissions abroad. On my countless trips, I had the habit of leaving to my journey with an extra huge, empty suitcase, and returning with the large suitcase filled with books.
First I purchased books on architecture and arts, but soon my interest widened to books on photography, cinema, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, literary essays and poetry. In addition to the books, which I have purchased in Finland or received as gifts sent to my office, I have hand carried some 10.000 books for my library from abroad. This amounts to several tons of books carried from various countries from six continents.
I have not had the time to read all my books, but their mere presence has been emotionally and intellectually important for me. Books are magical objects; you do not need to read them thoroughly, as their mere presence gives a direction to your consciousness and thinking; they strengthen your thinking and enrich your sense of life; they really become part of your persona. Books have also been significant directly in my architectural work; whenever I have begun a new project, I have first looked at a book on Fra Angelico´s paintings, as the buildings in the humble monk´s paintings appear as human beings, and they soften my sense of self and thinking. This was the first book of my library, donated to me in the late 1950s by my friend Juhana Blomstedt, the fine painter and the eldest son of Aulis Blomstedt, my teacher and mentor.
Books are your best friends and they are almost like human beings, and their presence enriches, orients and activates your mind. A good selection of books around you creates a sense of rootedness and activates your imagination. I have often instructed my students not to go to bed without having a few good books on the night table.”