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The Thinking Hand: Existential and UOMO MUM anni cla att cy Juhani Pallasmaa pi F| 0 cl EA Z 3 by 3 a Fs pI XG oer eels enn at nee a IM © Introductio mbodied Existence ho ‘Western consumer culture continues to project a dualistic attitude towards the human body, On the one hand we have an obsessively aestheticived and erotcsed cult of the body, but on the other, intligence and creative ‘capacity are equally celebrated as totally separate, or even exclsive ff individual qualities. In ether case, the body and the mind are understood as ‘nvlated entries that do not constitute an integrated unity. Ths separation is reflected in the strict dvsion of human activities and work into physical ‘and intellectuat categories, The body is regarded asthe medium of identity ‘and sef-presentation, as wel 2s an instrument of social and senual appeal. However, its significance is understood merely its physical and physiological essence, but undervalued and neglected init role a the very ground of ‘embodied existence and knowledge as wel as the full understanding ofthe human condition * ‘This dvsion of body and mind has, of course, its sold foundation ia the bistary of Western philosophy. Prevaling educational pedagogies and pracices aso regrettably continue to separate mental, intelectual and ‘emotional capacities from the senses and the multifarious dimensions of humen embodiment, Educational practices usually previde some dees ‘of piysical training for the body, but they do nat acknowledge our ‘fundamentally embodied and holistic essence. The body is addressed in sports and dance, for instance, and the senses are directly acknowledged in connection with art and music education, but our embodied existence i rarely identified as the very basis of our interaction and integration withthe ‘word, oF of our consciousness and sell-understanding. Taining ofthe hand is provided in courses that teach elementary sil inthe handicrafts, but the integra role of the hand in the evolution and diferent manifestations of ‘human intetigence is not acknowledged. To put it simply, today's preveting educational principles fll to graso the indeterminate, dynamic and sensualy integrated essence of human existence, thought and action, Its, i act, reasonable to assume that prior to our curent industria, ‘mechanised and materialist consumer culture, situations in daly fe as well 25 processes of maturation and education provided a more comprehensive experiential ground for human growth and learning de to their divect interection with the natural worid and its complex causalities. In earlier modes, Of lt, the intimate contact with work, production, materials, imate and ‘the evervarying phenomena of nature provided ample sensory interaction with the world of physical causaltes. | would also suggest that closer fay ‘and social ties, as well a the presence of domestic animals, provided mare ‘experiences for the development of a sense of empathy and compassion than todays individualised and molecular ife world {spent my early childhood years at my grandiather's small farm in central Finland, and with age | have become increasingly amare of how indebted | {am te the richness ofthis farmer's Kfe sphere in the late 1930s and 1240s {or providing an understanding of my own embodied existence, and of the essential interdependences of the mental and physical aspects of daily life. I believe now that even one's sense of beauty and ethical judgerrent {are firmly grounded in the early experiences of the integrated nature of the human life world, Beauty is not a detached aesthetic quality; the experience of beauty arses from grasping the unquestionable ceusaliies and interdependences of life In our age of massive industrial production, surreal consumption, euphoric communication and fictitious digital environments, we continue 1 ie in ‘our bodies inthe same way that we inhabit our houses, because we have sadly forgatten that we do nat live in our bodies but are ourselves embodied constitutions. Embodiment is not @ secondary experience; the human existence is fundamen'ally an embodied condition, Today, our senset and bodies ae objects of ceaseless commercial manipulation and exploitation, Physical beauty, strength, youth and vility ae adored in the realms of social values, advertising ane entertainment. In case we fail to possess idel physical qualities, our bodies ae turned against us as causes of deep dsappcintment ‘and gull Wh ever-accelerating frequency, all ow senses are exploited by consumer manipulation, yet atthe same time these very same senses continue to be undervalued as prerequisites of our existential condition oF 25 educational objectives. ntellectually, we may well ave philosophcally ‘ejected the Cartesian dualty of body and mind, but the separation continues torule in cultural, educational and socal practices tis tragic, indeed, that at the time in which our technologies offer a multi- dimensional perception of the world and ourselves, we should throw out consciousness and capacities back to 2 Euliian world. | do not wish to dwell ‘on nostalgic images of an Arcadian past oF to represent a conservative view ‘of cultural development. just want to remind myself as well as my readers of the very evident blind spots in our established understanding of aur own historicity 2 biological and cultural beinas. ‘Human consclousnessis an embodied consciousness, the worlds stuctured ‘around a sensory and corporeal centre. ‘lam my body’ Gabriel Marcel aims: ‘Lam what is zround me,’ Wallace Stevens argues‘ am the space, where | 2mm, Nod! Amaud establishes, and finaly “| am my world, Ludwig wittgenstein concludes * We ate connected with the world through our senses, The senses are not ‘merely passive receptors of stimull, and the bod isnot only 2 point of viewing the world from a central perspective. Neither the head the sole locus of cognitive thinking, as our senses and entire bodily being dicectly structure, produce ane store silent existential knowledge. The human body is 2 knowing entity. Ourentire being in the world s a sensuous and enibodted ‘mode of being, and this very sense of being isthe ground of existemial Knowledge. [Understanding is not a quality coming to human realty from the outside; itis ts characteristic way of existing,’ as Jean-Paul Sartre claims” Enxistentialy essential Knowledge is not pearly 2 krowledge moulded into words, concepts and theoves. In human interacion alone, 80 per cent of communication is estimated to take place outside the verbal and conceptual channel. Communication takes place even on a chemical levels ands have been thought of as a dosed system sealed in the body and only indirectly linked to the outside world, However, the experiments of AS Parker and HM Bruce show that chemical regulators, such as odoriferous substances, work directly on the body chemistry of er organisms, conditioning behaviour ‘The knowledge and skis of traditional societies reside drecty in the senses and mus erabedded and encoded in the settings and situations of fe In accordance with Sertre’s argument we are born into the world which in selfs the most important source of knowledge for us a their thought provoking book Philosophy inthe Fesh, George Lakal{ and Mark Johnson point cut thet even ordinary dally acts and choices call fr a plslosophical understanding; we ‘our own ives in all the countless situations ve constantly face in fe, The philosophers argue in the knowing and inteligent hands, and are ciectly ‘must be able to make sense 0 Living 2 human ile philosophical endeavour Every thought we hav, ery decion we mate, sd every act we perform is based upon philosophical sumptions 20 numerous we cult posibly at them al |. Though we nly acastonaly aware ot, we ae all metaphyscans~ not some xpenenc. Iti though our sence bul 2 prt of aux everyday capacity ta make sense of our cepa! ystems that we ae able to make we of every fe, and our every metaphysics is embodied i thoso conceptual systems. Leeming a skil is not primarily foundas on verbal teaching but rather on of the skil rom the musces ofthe teacher directly to muscles of the apprentice through the act of sensory perception and bodily mimesis, This capacity af mimetic learning is curently attributed to human mitror neurons." The same principle of embodying ~ or inojecting {0 use @ notion of psychoanalytic theory ~ knowiedge and skill continues to_be the core of artistic learning, The foremost sil ofthe architect is, likewise, to turn the mult-dmensional essence of the design task into ‘embodied and lived sensations and images, eventualy the entre personality of the desianer becomes the site of the design task, and the task is lived rather than understood. Architect from unconceptualised and lved existential knowledge rather than from mere analyses and intellect, Architectural problems are, indeed, far too complex and deeply existential to be dealt with in 2 soley conceptualised and rational manne, Profound ideas or responses in architecture are not individual inventions ex nfo ether: they are embedded in the wed realty Of the task itself and the age-old traditions of the craft. The role of this fundamental, unconscious, situational and tacit understanding of the body inthe making of architecture s grossly undervalued in today's culture of ‘quasi rationality and arrogant sell-consciousnes. ral ideas arise “biologically Even masterful architects do nat invent architectural realities; they rather reveal what exsts and what ae the natutel potentials ofthe given dition, or what the given situation calls for. Alvaro Sia, one ofthe finest architects of our time in combining a sense of tradition with a unique Personal expression, pus it sharply: ‘Architects don't invent anything, they anstorm realty Jean Renoir expresses the same ides of artistic humility in filmmaking somewhat differently: “The director is nota creator, but a midwife. His task is to help the actor give bth to child, that she has not realised having carved inside her,’ he confesses in his humane memoirs Achitecture is aso 3 product ofthe knowing hand. The hand grasps the physicality and materiality of thought and turns it into a concrete image Thehand has In the arduous pro probing fora vision, a vague inkling imateralisation of an ides. ses of designing, the hand often takes the lead in watt eventually tums into a sketch, 2 The pencil in the architect's hand isa bridge between the imagining mind and the image that appears an the sheet of paper in the ecstasy of work, the raughtsman forgets both his hand and the pencl,and the image emerges as ifit tion ofthe imagining mind, Or, pethags, is hand that realy imagines a t exists in the flesh ofthe world, the reality of space, matter and time, the very physical concition ofthe imagined objec. Martin Heidegger connects the hand directly withthe human thinking capacity: the hand's estence can never be determined, or explained, by ts ibeing an organ which can grasp ..] Every motion of the hand in every one of its works caries itself through the element af thinking, every bearing of the hand bears itself in that element [Gaston Bachelard writes about the imagination ofthe hand: ‘Even the hand has its dreams and assumptions. helps us understand the innermost essence of matter. That is why it also helps as imagine (forms of] matier® The capacity ta imagine, to iberate oneself ‘rom the limits of matter, place and time, must be regarded 2s the most human ofall our qualities. Creative capacity as well as ethical judgement for imagination. It is evident, however, thet the capacity of imagination rot hide in our brains alone, as our entite bodily constitution has its fantas sites and dreams, All our senses ‘think’ and structure our relationship withthe world although we ate not usualy conscious of this perpetual activity, Krow/ledge is normally supposed to reside in verbalsed concepts, but any grasp of aif situation {and a meaningful reaction to it can, and indeed should, be regarded as knowledge. in my view, the sensory and embodied mode of thinking is particularly essential i all artistic phenomena and creative work. Albert insten’s well-known description, ina letter to the French mathematician Jacques Hadamard, of the role of vsual and muscular images in his thinking processes in the fields of mathematics and physics provides an autharitai example of embodied thinking The words oF the language, a they are written oF Spoken, do nt seem to play any role in my mechan of thought. The psychical ete which sn thovght ae certain sgns ad mor o ss ear bine |.) The above images whieh can be wolumarly reproduced end ‘mentioned elements ae, n my ease, of visual and some of muscular type Conventional words or other sigs heve tobe sought fe aboriously only sa secondary stage, when the mentioned arson pl esabshed and canbe reproduced at wi* fssutticenty tis ao evident that an emotional and aesthetic factor, as well as an ‘embodied personal identification, is equally central in scientific creativity as in the making and experiencing of art. Henry Moore, one ofthe greatest sculptors of the modesn ea, emphasises the bodily identification ang simultaneous arasp of several points of view in the sculptor's work {Te sculptor] must strive continually to think of, and use form ints fa spa completeness. He gets te slid shape, a were insite fs head he think ‘oft, whatever is Ste, it he were holding it completely enclosed nthe hollow of his hand. He mentally visuals a comp'ex frm from al round ise be knows aie he loks a one side what the other se tke; heen es mse wit scene of gravy its mar, weght ne reales ts vole, and the space that he shape space inthe 34” The yf Alb ttn Tahonasof aaa Bll ant forms ~ such as sculpture, painting, music, nema and architecture = are specific modes of thinking, They represent ways af sensory and ‘embodied thought characteristic tothe particular artstic medium. These ‘modes of thinking are images ofthe hand and the body, and they exemplfy essential existential knowledge. Instead of being mereviual aestheticsation, architecture, for instance, isa mode of existential and metaphysical philosophising through the means of space, structure matter, gravity and light. Profound architecture does net meray beautify the settings of dwelling ‘great buildings articulate the experiences of our very exstence Salman Rushdie points out that a distinct softening ofthe boundary between the world and the self takes place in an artistic experience’ ‘Literature s made atthe boundary between self and the world, and during the creative at this borderline softens, tus penetrable and allows the world to flow into the ‘artist and the artist to flow into the world. This softeriny of the exitentit ‘boundary, the fusion of the world and the self, object and subject, takes place in every meaningful artistic work and experience. Creative work calls for @ double perspective: one needs 1 focus simuitaneously on the world and on oneself, the extemal space and one’s ‘mer mental space. AB artworks articulate the boundary between the self and the world, bth inthe experience ofthe artist and in that of the viewer/istener/occupant. in this sense, the art form of architecture dos ‘ot only provide a shelter for the body, it abo redefines the contour of our consciousness, and itisa true externaisation of our mind. Architecture, 2s ‘well asthe entire would constructed by man wrth its cites, houses, tools, and objects, has is mental ground and counterpart. As we construct our self-made world, we construct projections end metaphors of our own rindseapes. We dwel in the landscape and the landscape dwells in us. A landscape wounded by acts of man, the fragmentation of the cityscape, as Well 2s insensitive buisings, are al external and materialised evidence of an alienation and shattering ofthe human inner space oF Weltianenraum, to use a beautiful notion of Fainer Maia Rike.® even in the technologcal culture of today, the most important existential knowledge in our everyday life does nat resde i detached theories and explanations, butts 2 silent knowledge, beyond the threshold of consciousness, fused with daly environments and behavioural stuations. ‘The poet. 100, speaks of encounters atthe ‘threshold of being, as Gaston Bachelard points out.” Art guides us to this ‘threshol’, and surveys the biological and unconscious realms of the body and mind. In 0 doing, it ‘maintains vital connections with our biological and cultural past, the sol ‘of genetic and mythical knowledge. Consequently, the essental tine dimension of art points to the past rather than the future; gnifcant art and architecture mainlains roots and tradtions nstead of uprooting and inventing. However, today’s obsession with uniqueness and novelty has misguided cur judgement of artistic phenomena, Radical works of art andl bbulsing surely appear as ruptures or ciscontinuities of convention but, atthe same time on a deeper level all profound artworks reinferce the perception {and understanding of 1uman bio-cuitural histor city and continuity. Artistic revolutions always imply a reconnection with the invisible undercucents of the universe of the human mind, The duty of education's to cultivate and support the human abilties of imagination and empatiy, but the prevaling values of culture today tend to iscourage fantasy, suppress the senses, and petty the boundary between {the world and the self Consequentiy, education in any creative field in our time has to begin vith the questioning of the absoluteness of the lived world and with the re-sensitsation ofthe boundaries of set. The main abjectve of ntsc education may not directly reside in the principles of atistc making, but in the emancipation and opening up ofthe personality ofthe student _and hisrher self-awareness and sellamage in relation to the immensely rich traditions of art, and to the lived world at large tis evident that an educational change conceming the significance of the sensory realm is urgently needed in order to enable us to rediscover ‘outsehes as complete physical end mental beings, to fuly utise our ‘cepacites, and to make us less vulnerable to manipulaton and exploitation. Inthe words of the philosopher Michel Sertes, 2 ewit is to come, it will have to come from the five senses’ The inteligene, thinking and Skils of the hand ako need to be rediscovered. Even more mportantly, the unbiased and full understanding of human embodied existence is the prerequisite for @ dignified ie In 1995 | wrote the book The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses Academy Editors, London, 1996), which was republished in 2 ‘ew ilustreted format vath a pretace by Steven Holl by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 2005, The book i @ critique of the dorrinance ofthe sense of vision in today’s technological culture and contemporary architecture, and @ genera cal for a multisensory approach inthe arts and architecture ‘A year ago, Helen Castle, Executive Commissioning Editor at John Wiley & Sons, asked me to write @ Book in their new book series AD Primers 35 a continuation ofthe ideas on human embodiment suggested in The Eyes of the Skin. | submitted Nall a doze of my recent essays and lectures. and the publisher suggested a book that would be developed around the concept of The Thinking Hand, the ttle of a chapter in one of these essays. ‘The cuent book analyses the essence ofthe hand and its seminal role inthe evolution of human ski, inteligence ané conceptual capachies. As | argue = with the support of many other writers - the hand snot only a faithf, passive executor ofthe intentions ofthe bra; rather, the hand has its own intentionality, knowledge and skis, The study of the significance ofthe hand is expanded more generally tothe sign fcance of embodiment in human existerce and creative work “This book emphasises the relatwely autonomous and unconscious processes of thinking and working in writing, craftsmanship and making art or acchitecture. The book tuined aut to be quite different from my initial idea as 2 consequence of both the wating process itself and my subsequent literary ‘esearch, which brought out chapters, concerns and ideas that | didnot have any notion of before immersing myself in te project. In 2 way. the act of ‘wating this little book directly proved the thess that | present inthe text. Most of the examples and quotes in this book are drawn from painting, sculpture and inerature, but due to my own professional backeround my focus is on issues of architecture. In my role as a teacher of architecture, Ihave always found t easier for myself anc more efficient to explan ‘phenomena of the art of architecture through other art forms. ‘Al painters {and poets are born phenomenologists,’ as JH van den Berg suggests ** This ‘observation implies that all artist look at the essence of things. Besides all arts arise from a common sal they areal expressions of the human existential condition. The ttle of the book, The Thinking Hand, & a metaphor forthe characteristic independent and active roles ofall our senses as they constantly scan our life world. The subtitle ~ Eustential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture = refers tothe other knowledge, the silent understanding that les hidden the human existential condition and our specific embodied made of being and experiencing. Many of our existential most crucial skis are internalsed as automatic reactions beyond conscious awareness and intentionality. We _are hardly aware of the fantasticaly complex and automated metabolic processes, for stance, without which we could not survive @ split second. Even inthe case of learning sils, the complex sequence of movements {and spatial and temporal relationships in tte execution of the task ‘unconsciously internaised and embodied rather than understood and remembered intellectually The prevaling educational philosophies rerettably continue to emphasse {and value conceptual, intellectual and verbal knowledge over the tacit and. non-conceptual wisdom of our embodied processes. This attitude continues against all the overwhelming evidence of this catastrophic bias provided today through philosophical arguments and recent developments and ‘scovaries in neurology and cognitive science. The objective ofthis book isto ‘ep to shake the foundations of this hegemonic but erroneous and harmful paradigm inthe realm of architecture, Saher prone te es Pao ingen References Fike Seen, nat 26th WDnovenner 2007 “BAe quoted dahl The , ysterious expression and continuation of a thought which mus iindow on to the mind had been easier to unde Jught that we had a mind fica for The Multiple Essences of the Hand "We regard our own hand as a commonplace and sell-evident member of the ‘boul, but in fact its a prodigious precision instrument that seems to have its Lown understanding, wil and desis. Often it even appears tobe both the origin and the expression of pleasure and emotion. The hand, its mations and gestures, are expressions of the person's character tothe same degree as and body physique. Hands aso have and their unique appeara they have thee distinct personalities, They even reveal one's occupation and aft; just think ofthe cobust hands of 2 steelworker or blacksmith, the of tutiated hands ofa cabinet-maker, the hands of a shoemaker hardened and cracked by handling of the substances ofthe trade, the eloquently speaking hands of @ pantomime artist, or the alicate, utery precise and quick hands of 2 surgeon, pianist or magician. Hands are generic organs characteristic to Homo sapiens, but atthe same time they ae unique individuals. magine the hand of a chi fll of clumsy and nnocent curosty and excitement, and the nearly useless hand of an ok persor deformed by hard work and articular contours of Hen Matisse’ colourful paper cut-outs acquire a special meaning after having s2en 3 photograph of the ‘29ing atst warring his aching finge pigeons, 0” om hi charcoal attached to the end of along bamboo stick. Andté Wogenscky, Le Corbusiers cose assistant for 20 years, describes is master’s hands poetically and suggestivey im, The vivid movement of the ted joins in the feathers of domestic bed drawing on a sheet of paper on the wall wth @ Then t would tet my eyes go fom his face down to his hands. | would then cbsconee Le Corbusier was his hand that ravealed him. Mt was ai hands bewayed han, They spoke al his fesings, all the vbrations of hi as le that his fce trie to conceal (..| Hands that one ght has end rat outined the shape succes 13 th seemed to lok for ane another but that formed a precise and exact ine, that unique contour and dened 1 in space. Hands that seemed to hesitate bat ker whieh precon come, Hands that always thought, ut tke he didn his thinking, and on his hands one could 1636 his ana) his dsappoitments hs ematins and hs he Hands that hac deawn, andere today al Ns work * Le Corbusier appears as a somewhat enigmatic and distant person in literature written about him, his Hfe and work, but his hands as obsen his asistant seein to reveal his inner character and intentions. Hands can tel epic stories of entire ves: in fac, every epoch and cul has its characteristic hands; just look atthe varying hands ofthe countless portraits through the history of painting, Mareover, every pair of hands is ‘equipped with singuler patterns of fingezprints which do nat change at al after five months prior to the person's birth; these engravings onthe human skin are the secret prenatal hieroglyphs of indhidualty. ur hands are our reliable and diligent servants, Bt ow and then they seem to take command, lead their independent lives and demand theie own iberties But then, the integral completeness of the human figure is ‘0 powerful that we accept an armless statue 2s a valid and aesthetically pleasing representation of the human constitution, not asa deliberate depiction of mutation. INlothing essential fs missing. Standing be cone has the sense of a profound wholeness, a comp eteness that allows for ro addition. Rainer Maria ike, the poet, writes of Auguste Rod's vivid them, ‘tors05~ Or are we here rather seduced by the magic integrity of an artistic masterpiece? ‘The poet also describes the muhiple oles and determinedly independent lives cf the human hands: ‘There ave hands that walk, hands that sleep and hands that wake; rina hands weighted withthe past, and hands tha are ted and wan nthing help them. But then hands are a compcated organism, 2 dain which Iie from the most stant sources Pows together, surging into the great current ‘of action. Hands ave tories they even have ther own cute and thei OW particular beauty. We grant them the-ight o have her Onn development thei own wise, feelings, moods, and occupations J * Te hand has its socal roles and behaviours, its amorous as well as hostile and aggressive acts, its gestures of welcome and rejection, friendship and ‘animosity. The hands of God and Christ, as well as of the Pope, are hands Of benevolence and blessing, The hand of Mucius Scaevola isthe hand of bravery and heroic sef-contre, whereas the hands of Cain and Pontius Pilate are oxgans of crime and guilt Regardless ofits selt-suficiency, the hand may momentarily lose its independence and identity, and fuse with the body of the other, As Rilke observes: A hand Wing on the shoulder or thigh of another body ne longer belongs completely 10 the one it came from: 3 new thing ares out of it and the object touches or grasps, a thing that has ro name and belongs to no one, and its this new thing, which has is own definite boundaries, that mattess from that point on.” The hands of a mother and chid or of two lovers turn into an umbilical cord that unites the two individual. ‘Works of art and architecture extend the human hand through bath space and time, When looking at the Rondanini Pita (15S5~-64) in Castello Sforzesco in Milan, | can feel the passionate but already feeble hands fof Michelangelo approaching the end of his ile, The works of a reat architect likewise invite the imagined presence of his figure and hand, as the architectural space, scale and detaiing are unavoidably products and projections of the maker's body and hand. The greater the work, the more present the hand of the maker. | cannot look at a Vermeer painting ata close sistance without thinking of the painter stooped over his painting witha thin, sharply shaped brush in hs hand. No, do not imagine the painter, I become him, My entire physique changes and my hand guides the brush to the stil _wet little patch of yellow wal in his View of Deft (1660-1) that Marcel Proust admired and weote about |s | am looking at 2 Suprematist painting by Kasim Malevich, | do not see its a ggometric gestalt but as an icon meticulously painted by the artists hand. The surace of cracked paint conveys a sense of materiality, work and time, and | find mysel thinking ofthe inspired hand of the painter holding a brush, What is the Hand We use the notion ofthe hand” carelessly and without much thought, 25 if its essence were self-evident, The human hand is so beautify formed, its ‘actions so powerful, so free and yet so debate that there is no thought ofits complex ty 3s an instrument, we use it 2s we draw our breath, unconscious, Sic Charles Bell wrote in 1833.° But how should we really defne the hand? \When we say ‘give me your hand’, or "place this matter i his hands’ or » speak of handwork’ oF ‘handshake’, what exactly do we mean? Everyday use ofthe word as well as classical surface anatomy would probably argue that the hand isthe human organ that extends from the wrist fo the anatomy, te hand would ingertps.° From the viewpoint of biomecha be sean as an integral part ofthe entire arm. But the atrn also functions in a dynamic coordination with the musdes ofthe neck, back, and even the th the res af the body Training in mast sports aims exactly at this complete integration of the actions of the hands with the entre body hen reise my hand for an oath or greeting, oF give iy fingerprints 25 evidence of my identity, the hand stands for my entire persona, Physiological and functional anatomy would even consider those parts of the bran that regulate hand functions as part ofthe hand. Altogether, we are bound to admit thatthe hand is everywhere in our body, as well ‘and thoughts, and thus the hand is fundamentally beyand definability. As Frank R Whion, neurologist and writer, argues in his seminal study of the and infact inall ou actions ‘evolution and significance of the human hand entitled The Hand: How its Use ‘Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture ‘aly movement and brain acti are functional inte deoendent. aod ‘hes synery & 50 powerluiy formulated that no single since or dsophne can ndependenty explain urna sil or behaviour |). The hand 80 widely represented the bain, the hans noucclogicaland biomechanica cements are so prone to spontaneous interaction and reorganization, and the otiation: and efforts that give rie to nid! ue ofthe Rand ae 0 deeply snd widely coed, thet we must admit we at ying to explana base impecate of humane." Recent anthropological and medica research and theories even give the hand ‘2 seminal roe in the evolution of human intelligence, language and symbolic eee thought, The amazing mobile versatity, learning capacity, and apparently independent funetions of the hand may not be a result of the development ‘of the human brain capacity, a5 we tend to think, but the extrzordnary {evolution ofthe human brain may well have been a consequence of the ‘evolution of the hand, “Astle err in asserting that humans had hands because they were intelligent; Anavagoras was, pemaps, more correct n stating that humans were inteligent because they had hands,’ as Marjone ‘O'Rourke Boyle notes? ‘wilson sees the brain as wel as the interdependence of the hand and brain ‘omnipresent in the body: ‘Te rain does note nade te hea, eventhough Miss formal haba. reaches ou tothe bad, and with the bodyiteeaches out to the works Wecan say thatthe rain “ends at thesia cord, an thatthe spinal cord ends a the petchera era, an the peiphera nerve ‘end’ atthe neuromuscular uncon, ‘andon and on down the qutks, but bain ishand and hand isbran, and thes interdependence inclades everything ee ight downto the quarks.” \We can certainly conclude that ‘the hand speaks to the bran as surely as the brain speaks to the hand’*Even beyond its physical anc neurological significances, Wilson regards the hand as an essential constituent of the story of human ntetigence and its gradual evolution’ ‘TAlny theory of human inteligence which ignores the interdependence of hand and brait function, the histaric exgins ofthat relationship, the impact ofthat history ‘on developmental dynamics in modern humans, s grossly misleading anc sterile We usually think that our hands deal merely withthe concrete, material wort, but some theorists attrbute to the hand a significant role even in the emergence of symbolic thought* Hand, Eye, Brain and Language ‘The human hand isthe product of evolution. The extraordinary mobiity of the atm and the hand, as well as the human eye-hand coordnation and precise judgment of spatial postions and relations were already developed when the ancestors of hominids lived and moved up in tres. The earliest direct ancestors of humans were the austrlopithecines ~ misleadingly named ‘southern apes’ ~ who walked upright. The transition from moving on the ‘branches of trees to walking on two legs on the flat floor ofthe savannah purposes and a ry of the remains changed the role of the hands and tberated them for ne ‘new evolutionary development. In the 1960s the disco of ‘Lucy’, who had lived 3.2 millon years ago in Madar in East frca, was an anthropological sensation; our now famaus female ancestor was named after the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the sky with diamond that was played on a tape recorder in the anthropologists" camp.” Prevaling theovies already assumed hat the hurian brain could have evolved as 3 consequence ofthe increase in tool use, "The structure of modeen man must be the result of the change in the terms of natural selection that came witht [.a[ From the evolutionary point of view, behaviour and structure interacting complex, with each change in one affecting the other. Men began nen populations of apes, about @ milion years ago, started the bipedal tool-using way of le anthropologist Sherwood Washburn argues. sing way of Ife ‘The most seminal single hand was thatthe ‘physical opposition between the thumb and fingers became increasingly articulate. AL the same time this op9 Suble ANGES rg os hemtne ‘occuring in the bones that support and steengthen the index finger" The sheep anatomical changes enabled both the power and the precision rip in tool handling in the evolu ion combined wit heories suggesting that language ive tool manufacture e development evolution originates in carly cole {and tool ue impy that even t cof language i hinked with 3 the hand and the brain, Wilson argues assuredly: Tiga vitual certainty that complex socal structure ~ and language ciation with = developed gradually in he spread of mare highly elaborated 100! design, manufacture, and use The further inement of the hand le to further he brain's circuitry development ete growing evence that required mn ts navehapd not simpy the ‘mechanical capacity of cfined manipulative an tookusing sil but, 25 time pa events unilded, an impetus tothe redesign correalocabon, ofthe bras ceutry. The ew way of mapping the world was an extension of ancent eral repcesentations that stisy the brain's need for gravitational and inet cenit! of lacomation The development and refinement of tool use assumed to be related to the emergence of subjectivity and purposwve thinking: I has been said that language isthe prelude to the coming of man. That may be, but even befor language comes thinking in terms af took, ie, the realization of mechanical conrections and the invention of mechanical means for mechanical ends. To putt briefly, before the advent of speech, action comes to have a subjective ‘meaning, ie, it becomes consciously purposive. Psycholocist Lev Vygotsky thought-provokingly suo on the one hand, and thought, on the other, ae of different biological origins: (Jritialy thought is nonverbal and speech non-intelectual But, in humans} thought development is determined by language, iby th linguist of trought and by the sociocultural experience ofthe child. ests that speech and langua, In fact, art and architecture guide us back to the origins of language, to the originary wonder and amazement when encountering the unforeseen, [tistic images expose us to images and encounters of things before they have been trapped by language. We touch things ond grasp their essence before we are able to speak about them. Profound buildings place us at the central point ofthe lived world; even the tiny architectural space of the Kértner Bar (1907) in Vienna by AdcHf Loos turns into the nucleus of the world that seems to condense gravity and space, as well 25 all our ‘existential knawladge, in its pre-verbal, compressed spatial and materal configuration Jn fis book The Ming in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art, David Lewis Willams proposes a convincing theory for the origins of image making in the animals and symibols depicted on the wals of neotthic caves. He also provides an explanation for the mysterious fact that the Neandecthas, our nearest ancient relatives, who Ived alongside our Cro- Magnon ancestors for over 10,000 years and borrowed their stone tool technology, never developed artistic expressions such as the cave paintings of the Cro-Magnens. In Willams's view, the explanation for this curious fac ies in the evolution of the human mind. The Cro-Megnans, unike the Neanderthals, possessed a higher-order consciousness and a more advanced ‘seuralogical svucture wich enabled them to experience shamanistic twances and vivid mental imagery. These mental images ~ the fist recorded ‘expressions of human imagination and artistic hand ~ were then painted on the cave walls, which were regarded as the membrane between the world of ther pc-human occupants and ther imaginary sprit world, n which the imaces originated. ‘The American psychologist Juan Jaynes argues that human consciousness {dd rot emerge gradually in animal evolution but that itis # learned process ‘which developed from an earlier hallucinatory mentabty through catacysmic and catastrophic events. He identifies the emergence of human consciousness in ‘the breakdown of the bicameral ming! roughly atthe time ofthe earliest Mesopotamian written records — which, at around 3,000 years ago, is surpréingly late * The authors and researchers of the book Gesture and the Nature lof Language suggest that actions of the hend directly meuided the development of language: ‘he ery ctegores of language ae crated by intentional hand actions, $0 ‘hat vets deve from hand movements, nouns hod thhigs a6 mes, nd dvb: and adjectives, he hand took, madiy movements aed abject The fous hee particularly on how experiences of touch andar ‘give language its directive powe:” Geo'ge Lakoff and Mark Johnson suggest another connection between language and the body. In their book Metaphors We Live By, they develop idea: of the fundamental grounding of language on metaphors originating in the human body and the ways the body is related with and positioned in space. ‘[Mletaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not justin language but n thought and action, Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which wie both think and act, & fundamentally metaphor cal in nature, ‘the two philosophers argue.® These metaphors of language, thought and ‘action originate in the natural structures and aspects of the body and its relationship with space. ‘The decisive development of the human brain began abou: three millon years ago with tool use, and in accordance with recent theoretical views, the modern human brain wes completed 100,000 years ago, or perhaps even somewhat earlier?” Hand as Symbol “The fat that the hands the pat of the human body that appears most fequently in syrnbolisation” reflects the signficance, subtlety, 25 well as ‘expressiveness and multiple meanings of the human hand. Imprints and sihavettes of human hands appear already in Palaeolithic cave paintings. ‘These early imprints of hands probably signiy the individual whose hand left the mark in the same way that young children enjoy impressing ther hand marks as expressions of ther selves. The depictions of twisted finger joints and mutilated hands in the Gargas cave in France are assumed to ‘ornmemerate acts of sacrifice venous opal erg “The hand can have multiple and even opposite symbolic meanings in socia communication and ar, as inthe case of the hand gesture of taking hold ‘r pushing away, that can express bath postive and negative meanings. ‘The inage of the hand often appears in amulets, such as the islamic Hand fof Fata, In Semitic cultures, “hand! and ‘might’ are a single concept that ‘efersto the power of a ruler. The hand contact is regulated by cutural and professional codes, such asthe use of hand contact in the medical profess‘, ‘or the soci custom of greeting, but generally hand contact symbolises the magic ouch. Laying on of hands sgn fies blessing and this sgn tasers the powers of the touching person, or ofa higher being, onto the person being touched, Raised or folded hands are a symbol of prayer, distinct gestures of the fingers signify oath or blessing, and a handshake is @ genera symbol of 3 fiend and accepting attitude {Christian iconography, Chris is referred to as the Right Hand of God right hand sltogether tends to have postive sgifications as opposed io the left hand, in many cultures the ight hand isthe clean’ hand whereas the left hhandis “dity’ Hands that are covered or hidden in sleeves refer t the age ‘old custom of covering one’s hands asa sign of espect in the presence of ‘iets, The raised apen hand of Byzantine rulers gave rise tothe gesture of blessing in Christianity. The symbolism of both raised hands signifies 2 turning towards the heavens, the receptivity ofthe person in prayer, or the gesture ‘of adoration In Renaissance heraldry hands mean strength, loyal, diigence innocence and unity, whereas 2 hand withthe fingers extended and spread ‘aport means disunity, the closed hand or ist indicates strength and unity, and folded hands signify loyalty and union. In artistic representation, a hand emerging from a ctoud is an eaty form of ‘epresenting the Fist Person of the Tinity. The hand that struck Christ s one of the instrurnents of the Passion, whereas 3 hand giving moneyrefers to the payment to Judas, and the washing of hands referring to Plate'shands after ‘the tal of Christ represents innocence.” The hand and fingers have varying connotations in diffecent cultures: in the Kdamic belief the Five fingers signify proclaiming one's faith, prayer, pilgrimage, fasting and generosity. The traditional system of tual hand postures, or mudras, ofthe Budchists and Sivasts in India expresses a range lof coded meanings for hand gestures and they can be an integtal part of both secular and religious tual performances. Each finger may be associated umthits own hue, sound, element, end even its own celestial querdian Because of the characteristic Incian tendency to excessive classification, each muda gesture may possass one meaning nested within another ‘The intricate and indwvidually unique tines ofthe paln are interpreted in palmisty, or chirarancy. The basic assumption ofthis practice is that symbolic analogies nk the hand with is ‘hieroglyphics planetary forces and the potential Ife of the individual The hand isa signboard of personality it expresses social lass, wealth, allegiance, occupation end association. in many cultures the hand i ‘decorates by tattoos or less permanent colorationsand magery. Hands ‘ate also bearers of rings and bracelets that communicate numerous coded ‘meanings, such as mariage, profession, or membership in societies. Gestures, ‘meanings and messages of the hand are also popular subjects in the ats, Gestures of the Hand ‘There are theories that regard hurman gesture as the fist evolutionary phase an the way to spoken and written snguage. The emotive power, immediacy, universality and articulate nature of gestural expression certainly reflect the integrity of the human constitution as wll 25 of the close connection letween the mind and the hand, Also deficiencies and fails in the raind-hand unty are dramaticaly manifested: “The hand is the mind's only perfect vassal, and when, through age or illness, the connection between them is interupted, here a few more affecting tokens of humen decay 'SEPTENTRION. recent scholar, Edward Sapir, the anthropologist and linguist, argues similarly respond to gestures with an extreme alertness and, one might almo «ay. in accordance with an elaborate and secret code that is wntten n known by none, and understood by a+ Before they have learned even the foundations of inquistic communication, infants react correctly to basic gestures of threat or friendliness, for instan and individuals born blind seem to be able instinctively to use basic facial and hand gestures.® Although they were divided linguistically, the various Native ‘American peoples were able to cornmunicate through sign language * For purposes of trading, as much was done by the Hudson River Algonquins by signs with the thumb and fingers, as by speaking, wrote Jonas Michaelis, a 17th-century degyman ? Languages of the Hand Besides the Native North Americans, sign languages were particulary highly developed arrong Australian aborigines and the Maors. In addition to sign languages of indigenous cultures there are occult sign languages of secret sociebes and religious communities. Certain hand gestures that continue to be ‘sed today were already known in ancient Egypt and Babylon. Other gestural symbolic signsare used in art, theatre, heraldry and religion. members of many trades and professions use povate sii lar gu3 ‘example of invisible hand communication i the bidding proces of the delicious but highly poisonous globefish in Japan, perormed secretly by the hands of the seller and bidder pushed inside a special slesve es « Sir Richard Paget, who developed a universal sign language in 1939, estimated that by combining vanous postural movements of the upper arm. see forearm, wrist and fingess, its feasible to produce the staggering number ae fof 700,000 distinct elementary signs; he assessed that S00 to 600 signs ‘ would suffice for the vocabulary of his New Sign Language. T makes the human hand overwhelmingly more versatile than the mouth the mesning of numerour fecal and hond Tiss surprising realisation seems to open up immense possibilities for i estimation Itis remarkable to gestures can be grasped quite Independently of cultural background. "The gestural communication." hand isthe only speech that is natural to man [..Itmay wel be called the Tongue and general language of Humane Nature, which, without teaching, Yet another, and the most common, realm of hand gestures re the mostly man iallregions ofthe habitable word doe atthe aght most easly unconccious gestures of hands m comvercation ane! public apaearances, Hand understand, John Bulwer wrote in 1644 in his book Chironona.” A more gestures are, naturally, an important aspect ofthe arts of metoric and acting Independence and capacity for autonomous thought. wets bohioseamtss nite cay ont cig References \larLinn VWYUENGG | Lia Tid ti hane's natural powers and capacities. When an axe or a sheath knife is being used, the skilled user does not think of the hand and the too! as dilferert and detached entities; the tool has grown to be a part of the hand, i has transformed into an entirely new species o hand, Michet Serres, the philosopher, describes this perfect union of an ‘animate and inanimate element eloquently: ‘The hand is no loager a hand when «has taken hold of the hammer. i isthe harnmer tsi. itis no longer a hammer, it thes transparent, between the hammer and the all it dsappears and clssohes, my own hand has long since taken flight in writing. The hand and thought, ike one's tongue, disappear in their inations { yas, 2 took 100s evolve gradual through a process of small improvements, use and fejection. The finest tools are a resuit of e timeless anonymous evalution, and especialy dentilable designer tools usually remain 2s momentary curiosties| that donot become part of the real ancestry of the particular tool. Musica instruments, speciicaly conceived by designer professionals, exemplify these aesthetised curiosities, All great works of art similarly become an inseparable part of the tradition of the artform in question instead of being mere individualistic inventions. Great too’ are moulded ty the hand and its action cirectly. Centuries 0{ continuous work have refined the basic tools knife, hammer, axe, 52, plane ~ beyond improvement by an inddual conscious designer, guided by intellectualsed ideas of function and beauty. The development of tools in various cultures makes a mark on the specific DNA, as it were, that guides their evolution, resulting in a sense of relatedness, Like the human hand, the tool is generic and specific at th time. itis possible to identify the genetic ine of Japenese took, for instance, as dearly distinct from the Scandinavian or North American family of tools the performance and appearance ofthe tool unavoidably reflects the culture's particular attitude towards work and the social value placed on te work Tools possess a special and unarguable beauty. This fs @ beauty trought about by absolute causal instead of being 2 materiaization of an aesthetic, en the earliest stone tools express their use in the arp of the human hand and they convey the unarguab'e pleasure of perfect functienality and performance. The beauty of tools reflects the same pleasure of invitabilty as living creatures; indeed, they possess the beauty ofthe human hand its, the most perfect ofall tools. Traditional tools, devices and vehicles developed in contexts where access to imited matetas is Fited, such asi the varous Eskimo cultures, project a speclally convincing and touching beauty t ts aesthetic pleasure with the pure joy of discovery. ‘Also buildings, such as the houses of Glenn Murcut in Australia ~ perfectly adapt to thee settings and functional requicements, and ‘of climatic cond tions and of the'r structural and material esencewithot atbitrary aestheticising intentions — turn into architectural tools ot sorts with the same invitabity and beauty 25 the tools of crafts. Given the it complexity of tre hand, its actions adits relatiorship to the rest ofthe body brain, even simple hand tools are in essence body too's Yet the hand tool to tools used 1rd machines that function tly as finable complenty of performance in tots varies from o' by two hands, and took, instrumen extensions of the entre human bodily and neurological constitution, such as he bicycle, car or aircraft, In the same way that the boundary between the hammer and the hand disappears in the act of hammering, complicated such 3s musical instruments merge with the user's body, a great musician plays himself rather than 2 separate mstument. In draving and painting, the pencil and the brush become inseparable extensions ofthe hand and the ‘mind. A painter paints by means of the unconsccusintentionaity of the mind rather than the brush as 2 physical object, Despite these magical integrations, too’ ae natinocent; they expand our faculties and guide our actions and thoughts in specific ways. To argue that {or the purposes of drawing an architectural project the charcoal, pencil, nk en and computer mouse are equal and exchangeable i to misunderstand completely the essence ofthe union of the hand, tool and mind. The Hand of the Craftsman Whenever | see the total correspondence and unesplainable affinity of a cxaftsman’s persona, his/her hands and his/her workshop environment, | am deeply moved. The unity of a shoemaker’s professional world and his hands, the dark workshap of a blacksmith covered by soot and the smell of busning coe), the fully integrated atmosphere of a cabine persona, his 100, shap and the clean smell of wood, as well as the unity of the orderly and hygienic reception room of a dentist and his/her gloved hands, oF the completeness of the highty technologised operation room fof & microgurgean and the masked doctor, all express the marriage of an hers individual ang craft, responsiokty and pride. This umty reflects dedica determination and hope. Each one of these individuals has trained his ner hands forthe highly specialised task and made a pact with the trade for the ultimate destiny of hier life 1udlios of architects who have an uncompromising, exploratory and humbly ambitious attitude towards thei architectural craft usualy express the personality of the architect as wel as the maker's devotion to and respec for hisrher work. These studios epics of alifetime of arduous work and faith in one's mission cxder usualy resides beneath of sketches, working mode's, ‘material samples, photographs, les, memos and books. Inhis recent book, The Craftsman, the cultura) historian Bicharc Sennett nariates a concise history of craftsmanship ts characteristic ways of action ‘and thinking, its relationship to toals and machines, the development ofthe required ski, and the craftsman's ethical stance. The tradition of craftsmanship is clearly gaining increasing value and appreciation in today’s realty of the technological world, mechanical producton, and the regrettable loss f the touch ofthe human our mechanically mass-produced products and environments. traditional cultures the entire life worl is the product of human hands, and the daly spher means an endless passing ofthe hand skis and their products on to others 2 traditional fe world is 3 continuous mesing and joining of the hands of successive generations ‘work and li In my country, numerous traditional speciatsed crafts ~ such as the building of trational church boats, basket making, burning of pine tax, restoration ‘of buildings and objects, and painting of initation materials in bulings. were almost lst inthe petiod of euphore incstralsation of the 1960s and 1970s, Fortunately, a new interest in traditions has followed the industnal rage and saved these ‘and numerous other crafts, but there ae stil countess skils and an immense stock of unverbalsed knowledge around the world, embedded in ageless modes of lite and livetinoods, that need 1to.be maintained and restored ‘These traditional cumulative practices of the human hand ‘around the world form the true survival skis of humankind, Craftsmanship arses from manual kil training 2nd experience = personal commitment 2s well as judgement. Every good craftsman conducts a dialogue between concrete practices and ‘thinking; his dialogue evolves into sustaining habits, and these habits establish a rhythen between problem solving and problem finding. Sennett points ‘out Even composers, poets and ‘writers often consider themselves ‘ascraftsmen, Anton Chekhov Used the Russian word mastersva ‘o describe his craft both as a medical doctor and as a writer, Jorge Luis Borges likewise considered writing asa craft, and ths attitude 6 reflected in the very tte of his Harvard lectures of 1967-8, pubished in book form as This Craft of verse In addition to the tool, the skilled practice of a craft invalves imagination with the hand, every masterful exercise of craft projects determ ned intentionality and an imagined vsion of the completed task or object at hand. Richard Sennett makes two basic arguments about the interaction ‘of the bodily actions of the hand and imagination Fis, that al kts, even the most abstract, begin a bod pracnces: second, that echnical understaning develops trough the powers of Imagination: The fest xcument focuses ‘on knowledge gained inte hens through touch and mover. The argument about imagination begins by ‘exploring anguace that stems 10 cet and guide body sks + “The craftsman needs to develop speciic relationships between thought and raking, idea and execution, action and ‘matter, learning and performance, self identity and work, pride and humility. The ‘craftsman needs to embody the too! or instrument, internals the nature of the ‘material, and eventually tur himfherself Into his/her own product, either material ‘oF immaterial. The physical ikeness or resonance between the atistimaker and his/her work is often surprsing; jst think of the lan and melancholic igure of Alberto Giacomett, and his solitary, eroded walking sculptures clingng shyly to the surface of Mother Zarth by their enormous feet In his book Berger On Drawing, John Berger points out this identification or fusion of the maker and his/her product in the craft of drawing: ‘Each confirmation eodiasree sig or denial brings you closer tothe object, unt finally you ae, as it were, inside mR = Ie the contours you have drawn no langer marking the edge of what you have seen, but the edge of what you have become. the gant meso the conv expres exe Sot fang ne teed or pete crc wean Drive baton! He coud man eth tan and ee milo wig dig ines hans wee aly Setried on id ste wah pose BERGER ON DRAWING @ JOHN BERGER ne makers Ags Tap ‘The work of the craftsman implies collabs ‘ation with his mater. instead Wicks explains his oS. store of imposing a preconceived idea or shape, he needs to listen to his material Felatonship wath materials: {| Brancusi was the magician of pure form, but he was also deepy concerned ‘Making things with my hands means a lot to me. | could even say that ‘with the innate properties of materials: You cannot make what you want when I sculpt or model nature's material it has an almost therapeutic effect ) tomeke, but what the material permits you to make. You cannot make out of They inspire me and lead me on to new experiments. They transport me marble whet you would make out of wood, or out of wood what you would Into another word. A werld in which, if eyesight falls, my fingertips see the make out of stone [... ach materia has its own life, and one cannot without ‘ovement and the continuous emergence of geometical forms.” He often punishment destroy a ving material to make a dumm senseless thing. That sed the expression ‘eyes at the fingertips’ referring tothe subtlety and is, we must not try to make materia speak our language, we must go with precision ofthe tactile sense ofthe hand them to the point where others wil understand their language Wirkkala, another master cerns: ll materia material you're working with. The designer's purpose isto bein harmony the material. The craftsman has the advantage that at every stage of the work hg material sn his hands to fee! and command, ia industry, the form, exoresses exactly the sam have their own unwwiten laws. You should never violate the material is constantly subordinate to some preplanned law and machinery and once the job has begun it's dificult to make changes. ‘The Finnish sculptor Kain Tapper (1930-2004) relied on the fea of his palms rather than his eyes i finishing the fluidity of the shape or the rhythm of the surface texture in his wood and stone sculptures. He liked to polish his stone pieces atthe shoreline of e lake because he felt thatthe hovizontality of the water surface and the definitiveness ofthe harizon line sharpened Ii eyesight al Lact sense, Hp subtle wood reliefs could be called “aie paintings’ as they address the hand and the skin as much as the eyes In another context, Wirkkala speaks about the interaction of two hand ‘activities, drawing and model making isto start werk, | make | draveng or sketch ian idea which provides th dazens ~ sometimes hundeeds~ofshetches, From them Ise coffer some potential for develooment For mei’smportant 0 Sethe o rete thing before sang ton to the manufacturer. Making the lect hove that models an essential aspect of ay wor. roduce rom some sold mater | det make ost one, Bu several models whic an co fone fo cantinve working on. In his way the doa becom riztakes more apparent Even inthe age of computer-aided design and vetual modeling, physical models are incomparable ais in the design process ofthe architect and the designer. The three-cimensional material model speaks to the hand ang the body as powerfully as to the eye, and the vey process of constructing model simulates the process of construction. Models are used for a varety of purposes: they are a way of quickly sketching the essence of an idea; a medium of thirking and working, of concretsing or clarifying one's own ideas; 3 means of presenting 3 project to the cant or authorities; and a way of analysing and presenting the conceptual essence ofthe project. Models are also used to study specific aspects of architectural projects, such as illumination or acoustic ‘qualities. The model both concretises and extemalises ideas: the frequently ‘imnutwe scale of the model and the observer’ externalty invites are permis the identification and judgement of aspects that could otherwise bbe lost. The model helps the arch tect to think of the project mits ful foam ae tnjyetseen mech fet: ral he Nw Yo Sm 6-62 spatial completeness, as Henry Moore advises. In adcition to their primary purpose fof melting anc factitating the design process itself, achitectural models ace often conceived and produced as see independent objects of art, or atleast of ‘aesthetic appreciation." Collaborative Craftsmanship While drawing, 2 mate designer and architect is not focused on the lines of the drawing, as he & envisioning the object isel, and in his mind holding ‘the object in ns hand or occupying the space being designed. During the design process, the architect occupies the wery structure thatthe lines of the crewing represent, Asa consequence of the mental transfer from the ~actualty ofthe drawing or the model tothe material realty of the project, the images with which the designer advances are not mere visual renderings; they constitute a fuly haptic and multi-sensory realty of imagination. The architect moves about freely in the imagined structure, however large and ‘complex it may be, as if walking ina builing and touching al its sutaces and sensing thei materially and texture. This is an intimacy that is surely itficu, |f not impossibie, to simulate through computer-aided means of modelling ‘and simulation, ‘While working on a drawing you concretely touch lf the edges and surfaces of the designed atject with the tip of your penc| that has become ane of your fingertips. The hand-eye mind connection in crawing is natural and fluent, asf the 2encil were abridge that mediates between two reaties, and the focus can constantly be shifted between the physical dramang and the non. existent object the mental space that the drawing depicts ‘Drawings and models have the double purpose of facilitating the design process itself and medating ideas to others. Working drawings, finaly, twansfer instructions ofthe conceived design to the craftsmen and builders for the purposes of execution, An element of magic resides even inthis final phase of communicating instructions for execution, usually regarded 35 a mere necesity that only requires precision and clay of logic inthe ‘communication | have often marvelled atthe natural stone walls ofthe “Tampere Cathedral by Lars Sonck (1870-1956) that seem to radate an ‘extraordinary sense of attention and care as if every individual stone had been selected and putin its place ina state of inspiration or ecstasy. Vibrating in light and expressing the entire history of brick building traditions, the ed brick walls of Alvar Ralto's Saynatsalo Town Hall (1948-82), Jyvaskyla University (1952-7) and other buildings of is "ed period” project smlarly a sowerful tactile imvtation that speaks of the act of bricklaying and the touch SS ee See of the hand, wiereas the very seme bricks in a building nearby, designed by 8 less gited architect, appear as Mess surtaces made of industrial mass- produced construction elements The Swedish master architect Siquid Lewerentz (1885-1975) is told to have arived at the construction sites of his Churches of St Mark in BySrkhagen (1956-60) and St Peter in Klippan (1963-6) early in the morning, at the time his Bricklayers began theic daly work, and, sitting in a chair, pointed with his umbrella at one brick at a ume in the tack and then at its destined place on the brick wall under constriction. inthe Lewerent2 walls and vaults, laid with wide plester seams, each brick maintains ts individuality, and the coarseness of bricklaying exoresses the physicality sense the smell af sweat and hear the chatting of the Bricklayer. Lewarants i reported to have told the brichlayers the would finaly be alastered, otherwise the bricklayers would not have agreed to execute such brutal bricklaying work ‘af work; ane can alm White te thatthe brick surf under today’s professional practices of stoct qualty standards. Whether this, is true oF not, the story emphasises the importance of intentionality ancl ate human communication even in work that seems to be mechanical Most designers ~ such as glass artists or furniture designers, not to mention architects ~ rarely make the objects they design themselves. Consequently, they need to uncerstand the possibilities and limits of the materias and crafts, and communicate theie ideas and intentions to the specialist craftsman, whose hands become the designer's surogate hands in the execution of the work. The architect often needs an entire army of surrogate hands, Both in the studio and on the construction ste, to execute his work. Inthe case of the unique glass objects that Tapio Wirkkala d the Finnish designer collaborated with the knowledge and skits accumulated signed for Vena in Venice, atthe Murano factories through several generations of Venet an master tlass-blowers. The shared knowledge of the materia, the shared ambition to perform atthe limit of the capacity ofthe craft and one’s personal kil, am he logic ofthe work itself provided the syntax forthe unspoken language ‘between the Finnish designer and the Venetian maker. In fact, the designer's er than ary single collaborator was the ageless tradhion of his at, a individual craftsman, used to think tha architect's duty was to design structures and realised that every details that areas easy to execute as possible. Ha nal has his ambition and pride, | have changed my serious p view ently. Skiled craftsmen and builders like to fx consequently the work needs to meet the full potential ofthe maker ia order to provide the desired inspiration and satisfaction. Work simple and repetitious kills ambition, sel-esteem, pride and, final, the craft itself Most importantly, colaborative craftsmanship requires mutua respect. Alvar Aslto was a master in his communication with the various professionals and craftsmen of his varied productions; the highly respectsd ‘academician spcke to a carpenter and bricklayer as his equals, and inspied ‘them to iternalse thei work and perform supremely atthe limit of the professional capabilities. hallenges, and Mastering one craft personaly helps the designer and architect 10 grasp the nuances of other rafts and, before al, to respect the special skil ard experience of the craftsman executing his design. Besides, learning any skit intimately teaches one wi 90 with twe me humilty Arrogance does Architecture as Workmanship “The architectural profession was traditionally regarded as a craft, or cose to the nation of cratt. Architectural ideas were created in close interaction w'th the actual physical construction at the site, and drawings did not emerge as means of conceiving architecture unl the Renaissance period.” Pie to that, architecture was seen as @ manual occupation along with painting and sculpture, In order to raise these manual and mechanical arts tothe level of the ‘iieral arts’ of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music that formed the quadrvium of the mathematical ats, these practices had to be given 3 {ie theoretical ~ ie mathernatica| ~ foundation, something that was at the {ime to be found in musical theory." The essence of architecture waslargely in technical practicalities as conveyed, for instance, by Vitruvus's (84-14 2c) seminal treatise De architectura Sori decem (The Ten Books on Architecture). In addition to conceiving the novel structural principle forthe eliptica dome Tic Wilbacaiboratd swththe asi ges Bowes tthe Ver iss otnn ‘ought age meses ‘olveretenais store he wel git tkiects raged Veringy Fenage othe long aston ofVeretin ss bow, Tpowibiaa cacoroesh atemaurete ee Boe, ‘vtec ovetappegeac targa fof the cathedral of S Maria del Fiore in Florence (1417-46) - which, 43 ‘metres in diameter and rsing 0 a height of 115 metres, was erected in two ibbed shels withaut centring —Flippo Brunellschi,@ locksmith by intial training, also had to invent all the devices for transporting huge blocks of stone and lifting them to the soaring heights of the dome. Itshould also be remembered that the master architects ofthe Renassance were usually painters and sculptors 25 well In some countries, such as Denmark, an alternative path tothe profession ofthe architect has traditionally existed through some of the building crafts, such as bricklaying, carpenty, or cabinet-naking, The connection with the construction site and processes of construction has also traditionally ‘been intimate inthe architectural profession until the modem era that has, nowever, emphasised specialisation and the consequen: separation of, ‘the architect from the physical work of construction. The fact that being ‘an apprentice at the construction site used to be a mandatory part of ‘architectural education, and that architects often practised a craft, drawing, painting oF sculpture as 2 hobby or a means of acquinng manual skill and carrying out formal experiments, reinforced the connection setween professional architectural practice and the realities of making ~ between idea ‘and mater, form and its execution, Curing the postwar decades, the intellectual emphasis in architectural education, and the growing practical as well as mental distance between: the architect's studio and the construction site have, however, decisively \weatened the craft essence ofthe architect's work, Today the architect usualy works from the distance of the architectural studio through drawngs and verbal specifications, much Fke a lawyes, instead of being directly immersed inthe material and physical processes of making In adation, the increasing specialisation and dvsion of labour within the architectural prectce itself nas fragmented the traditional entity ofthe architect's self idenity, working process, and end result. Fly, the use of the computer has broken the sensual and tactile connection between imagination and the object of desig. Design-buid practices particularly in the United States ~ such as Sam ‘Mockbee’s Rural Studio in Alabama, Rick Joy's in Arizona, and Dan Rockin in Kansas —have reinttoduced the intimate connection between desing _and building, thinking and making, The design-build practice aso brings ‘the execution and dataling back into the fll control of the designe, ce Meaetar Tha en dana and potentialy eliminates the conservatism and carelessness of today’s consituction companies, Rockhil's Studio 804 and Brian Mackay-Lyors's Ghost Internatio ‘Architectural Laboratory in Nova Scotia exemplify chectural education back to practices and processes of physical making archrectural courses that aim at inking Smal studio practices around the world often embrace a craftsman-lke ethos. and maintain an intimate, tactle connection with the work. Renzo Pian i surely one of the most sophisticated High-Tech architects today, but he has Gelberately maintained a creftsman’s approach to the process of architectural desian, experimentation, and execution of the work. Piano eaplain his craftsman ke working methods as follows: "You start by sketching, then you doa drawing, then you make a model, and then you goto reality = you go 1 the site ~and then you go back to the drawing. You build up a kind of circularity between draning and making and back again. The architect's aaproact: here seems tobe ck to the wiorking method ofthe ealtsmen: designer as everplified by Tapio Wirk important aspect of the process its‘circlarit, the constant shifting of viewpoints from the idea tothe sketch the model a full-scale test, and back again. Asa consequence Of this arduous and complex process, the buiding exists aa full immaterial aman canaetcoumctnonsToneemertoncertt aa maces 7 Sea Boman cea err enres we poe irae tL Fg maar neh ART KANAK DE JADE ET DE NACRE 2 epembre Sh deenre 190 ‘Tien ‘mental construction ong before the actual construction work begins. in fact, the buikdng has often been bult and tested as a mertal construction in several alternatives bafore the final concept i chosen. Tireless repetition isan essential feature of Renzo Piano's way of work ng “This i very typical ofthe caltsman’s approach, You think and you do at the same time. You draw and you make. Drawing |. s revisited. You do it, you Fedo it, and you redo # again." Piano has appropriately named his studio ‘Renzo Pano Building Workshop’ to reflect the idea of teamwork, and to suggest the long traditions of craftsmen's and artists! workshops since the ‘Middle Ages with their intimate relationship between the master, apprentice {and work The feeling of the workshop of @ meciaval quit of sorts separates Piano's workshop, reflecting the materiality and physicalty of things as wel 2s physical labour, from the neatness and sterility of a businesslike architect's office of today rede aap ‘in my view, the connection with the processes of making continues to be “seminal and » wise erchtect today searches deap personal friendchipe with -eaftsmen, artisans and artists in order to reconnect his/her intellectualised -world and thinking with the source of all rue knowledge: the real world ‘of materiality and gravty, and the sensory and embodied understanding of these physical phenomena, References 7 e- Sa Hand-Min ” i | “This image [of the artist's model] is revealed t 2 though each stroke of charcoal erased from the glass “ . | some of the mist which until then had prevented me “ Tha Na | from seeing it [...] beyond the haze of this uncertain \ | image | can sense a structure of solid lines. This eS i structure releases my imagination, which works, at L tye | the next sitting, in accordance with the inspiration which comes both from the structure and directly “ from the model. [...] Drawings containing atl the subtle observations made during the work arise from a fermentation within, like bubbles in a pond Experimentation and the Art of Play David Pye divides workmanship into two categories in his Book The Nature and Art of Workmanship: ‘workmanship of risk’ and ‘workmanship of Ccortainty’ The fist attitude to workmanshin ‘means that at any moment ‘whether through inattention, or inexperience, or accident, the workman {s lable t0 ruin the job In the second approach ‘the quality of the result is predetermined and beyond the control of the operative’. Dav Pye, 2 master craftsman of skiled wood objects himself, concludes’ All the ‘works of men which have been mast admired since the beginning of our history have been made by the workmanship at risk, the last three or four ‘generations only excepted” ‘This thought-pravoking separation of craft practices into two categories with thee distinct ethical connotations also applies to architectural practices ‘today, Most practices apply rather established and tested standard methods land zolutions throughout thei work, wile more ambitious and coursgecus studios tend to experiment with novel structures, forms, materials {etais, and their combinations. These practices are wiling to employ a "workmanship of risk. The ‘isk’ usually impli the mental uncertainty of advancing on untrodiden paths, as the actual sks in relation to safety, ‘durabilty, appearance and suchlike can usually be minimised by working experience, careful calculations, esearch, experimentation, and laboratory ‘prototype tests The risk is directed to the architect's own persona, values, beliefs and ambitions - one's self identiy as an architect and professional. The creative state is a condition of haptic immersion where the hand explores, searches and touches semi-independent. Reima Petia (1823-93), the Finnish architect, compared the design process with the acts ff hunting and fishing; you cannot be certain what you are going to catch, for whether you wil catch anything at all. Pietia’s working method was a curious fusion of linguistic and visual explorations; his sketching appears {a probing by means of invented words, wheceas his spoken and written language often projects characteristics of visual sketching. Goth his lines ‘and words probe and mould the contours of an unknown temitory. Studies. in the rorphology of characteristic Frish landscapes often revealed to him the formal language, structure, texture and rhythms of his projects.” ‘Alvar Aato provides 8 are and intimate insight into the astocative and ‘experimenting creative process of @ great mind, indicating the seminal ole (of the absent-minded hand and its seemingly unconscous and aimiess play in sketching “Thisis what do~sometimes quite stincvly | forget the who'e maze of robles fora wil, a oon a he feet the assignment and the innumerable demands involves have sunk nto my stconscios. hen move on to 8 method of working thats vary much He abst at simpy raw by instinct, not architecture sytheses, but what ae sometines quite like compositions, ancdin ths way, on an abstract bass, the main cea _radually tales shaps, kind of vaersal substance that lps met bing ‘re numerous conradetory components ite harmony * ‘Aalto's design approach points out that in creative work a focused consciousness needs to be momentatly relaxed and replaced by an embodied and unconscious mode of mental scanning. The eye and the extemal world are dimmed for an instant, as consciousness and vision are inesnaised and embodied when designed the Vipud City Library and thad plenty of tne 8 whoe five yea), spent ong pesids getting my range, ait were, with nave crawings tow a kinds of fantastic mountain andscapes, with slopes it by many urs In liferont postions, which gradually gove aie tothe main idea ofthe building. [1 My chile drawings weee only inde nkes with architectural thinking, but they eventual ke oan interweatng ofthe section and gound lan, and to kindof unity of henzonta and vertical construction > [altos subconscious sketches of ‘mountain landscapes’ end ‘many suns eventually fed hie to the solution of the library consisting of stepped floor level and in total $7 conical skylights with a 1.8-metre dameter that prevent