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Juhani Pallasmaa

Architec tural thought is the working through of phenomena iniliated by idea. By "making" we realize
idea is only a seed for extension in phenomena .
- Steven Holl,Anchoring

Steven Hall's architectu ral trajecto ry Fro m the early project s of the mid-1 970 s, wh ich reflected the
air of co ntemporaneou s Italian Ratio nalism, to the relaxed and experientially multifaceted HEART
Hern ing Museum of Co ntem porary Art , which will be Inaugurated th is year, is long an d surpri sing.
The twenty-five years sepa rating. these polar phases of hi s career seem to fu se more than a lifetime
of inten se creative exploration in the formal , perce ptual, and mental essences of the art of bui ld ing.
H,s journey as a designer has been guided by tireless reading in poet ry (in cluding poets like Osip
Mandelstam , Anna Ahm atova. ana Paul Celan in addition to ot hers writi ng in English). philosophy. and
scientifiC literat ure as well as by hi s deep engagement in the world of the vi sua l arts. The scope of his
design work is impressively varied at the sa me time that it is determined and consistent , as if having
followed a preconceived plan . As th is path has meandered and bran ched off Into new directions, It
has also gradually and convi ncingly esta blished the singular and recognizable world of Steven Hall,
the architect. That he was very recently granted the un ique Frontiers of Know/edge Award in the Arts,
sponsored by the Spani sh BBVA Ban k, underlines the fact that he has reached the highest international
level of arch itectural esteem. Indeed, during the past two decades he has al so been one of th e most
in sp iring ro le models and idols in arch itectural education around th e world . His open -minded sense
of curi OSity and hi s rare capacity t o fu se creative design with philoso phi cal clarity and poetic li terary
express ion have reinforced his impact in the world of archi tectural ed ucation.
Luci o Font ana
Concetto Spozlale, Atrese. 1967 I HEART

54 I STEVEN HOLL / HEART JUHANI PALLASMAA. / THOUGW liND PHENOMENA I 55

 The arti stic universes of architects and artists tend to become increasingly idiosyncratic, narrow, an
hermetic over t ime as a consequence of a consciou s quest for an identi rlable artistic identity. Holl's world ,
by contrast. has cominua lly opened up to new influences, aspirations . and architectural solutions. His
ulldings are not variations on established architectural anatomies or his own prior architectural themes ;
they t end t o be new architectural typologies and spatial experiences. His early mterest In architectural
typologies remerged later on in his continued as piration to generate novel architectural types-new
architectural creatures, as it were. He seems to inject a novel archit ectur'al DNA, so to speak , into each
new commission and to creat e an unfore seen specimen of architecture in each new task. Just t hink of
the dramatic differences between, say, the labyrinthine scheme fo r the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice
('1990), somewhat remini scent of the folds of the human brain , the ensemble of sculpted and modulated
light in the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle Urliversity (1994-97) ; rhe gigantic porous urban wall and
the co nstruct ed caves of the Simmons Hall dorm ilories at the Massachu setts Instit ute of Technology
in Cambridge (1992-2002) ; t ile silvery ext rud ed sectional shape of the Whitney Water Pu rifi cati on
Facility and Park In Connecticut (1998-2005), suggesting images of the life-giving purity of water; and
he illum inated glass plank lanterns , or "lenses," of the Nelson-Atkins Mu seum of Art in Kansas City
(1999-2007) , rising authoritatively from the earth . Regardles s of hi s interest in integrated and SCUlpted
spaces an d forms , Holl occasionally creates projects that are based on a st ri ct ort hogonal geometry and
sim ple tectonic language, such as the Swi ss Re sidence in Washington D. C. (2001 - 06), the Writing wit
Light House on Long Island (2001-04), and the Planar House in Pa radi se Valley, Arizona (200 2-05).
Like all architects, Holl began hi s ca reer wi th sma ll theoretical projects, shop interiors, ren ovations,
and houses, but he has also recently executed enormous u rban projects, such as th e Makuhari Housi ng The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
proj ect in Chiba. Japan (1 99 2- 96); the Lin ked Hybrid multi-func t ional urban block in Beiji ng (2003­ .ansas City, MO, UniLed States
1999-2007
2008) , with more th an 2,500 inhabitants; and the World Trade Center com petition entry in New York
(200 2).1 In the recent projects, the architect's interest has Included ser ious applications of ecol ogical
solution s, such as geothermal heatin g and cooling and the recycl ing of water The t ireless sense of
curiosity and mental energy t hat the maj ority of Holl's projects exude assure me that hi s expedition will
also lead him into hitherto unexplored terntories in the futur e.
Alre ady during the early 1980s I had paid attention to t he few of Steven Holl's pu blished proj ects,
such as the high ly stl'8tegic Manila Housing Compet ition sc heme (1975) ; the semi -u nderwater Sokol
Retreat, St . Tropez (1976); the Bronx Gym nas ium Bridge. New York (1 977); lhe Bridge of Hou ses on
Elevated Rail , New York (1 980-8 2): and t he Autonomou s Arti sans' Hou sing proJect. Staten Island
(1980-84). I was intrigued by the combined ultra - rationality and surreal or dream l ike air of these
architectura l pro positions as well as by the poet ic preciSion of Holl's minimal line drawings, akin to
the cont em poraneo us elegant ly spare drawings of Marl< Mack. The sen se of life evoked by fu rniture
and everyday objects made me think of the redu ced perspective d raWings of Hei nrich Tessenow, which
exude a warm feeling of l ived do mestic li fe. Du nng the eighties I had also seen photograph s of a couple
of Holl's executed bui ldings in architectur'al journals : the Pool Hou se and Sculpture Stu d 10 (Sca rsdale.
New York, 1980); the House at Marth a's Vineyard (Massachusetts, 1984-88) ; and the Hybrid Bui lding
(Seaside. Florida, 1984- 88), wh ich all conveyed a similarly personal and foc used architectura l intention .
Holl's winning competition entry for the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (America Memorial Ubrary. 1988) in
Berlin-With it s unorthodox volumetric compOSition and strangely swelling bridge element-suggested an
urban architectu re beyond both the modernist and postmodern imageries of the time.The interior perspectives
of the project, With several stepped floors rising and receding in space, made me think of the endless maze
of spaces and stairways in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's hypnot ic Career; etchings (1745-50).1 also remember
having recalled that when I saw the fi rst published photograph s of the Gothic towers of Louis Kahn's Richards
Medical Research Building (1957-60) in Philadelph ia in the early 1960s I had f elt a similar sensati on of
dizziness as I real ized that I was gazingat a new architectural world, the doors of which had just been opened.
Holl's inspi red and meticulous stud ies of American Vernacular Typologies (1982) as well as hi s
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

writings published since the late 1970s in the Pamphlet Architecture pub lications, whi ch he himself Kansas City, MO, United States

ed ited, f inally convinced me that here was an arch itect who seriously aspired to groun d hi s wOI'k in 1999- 2007

56 I STEVEN HOU I HEART JUHANI PAUASMM ' THOUGHT AND PHENOMENA I 57

 the mental and historicat deep st ruc tu res of architecture, and consequently, th a t he would very l ikely
be capable o'f expand ing the real m of contemporary arc l,itectul'e tha t seemed Lo be caught between a
mann er ist mode rni sm and painfully eclecti c postmodernist imageries.
My first live encounter w ith Steven Holl's designs took place at th e exhibition of his work at the Museum
of Modern Art in New York m 1989.' Particularly the elegant material constructions in the exhibition­
made of blackened steel9nd bronze and frosted glass-appeared fresh and suggested to me a sensuous
architectu re that addresses imagi nation and the sense of touch . These constructions even seemed to
sensitize other sen sory modalities, and I rea lized that my own existential sense, my very sense of self, was
being addressed and activated . Holl's exhibition architectu re made me think of his sli ghtly earlier New York
proJects : the Cohen Apartmen t (1982-83); the Kurtz Apart ment (1985) ; the Pace Collection Showroom
(1 986) ; and the Giada Shop (1987), which conveyed a feel ing of the abstracted rhythm ical and geometric
space of De StiJ I Neo Plastici sm combined with a unity of space, sensuous materi ality, and hapt ic evocaLion .
I fettthat the arch itect had now identified fully his persona l artistic realm and expression.
While visiLing the exh ibition , I did not have the slightest idea that Steve n and I would ever meet-in
fact , fair ly soon fo r that matter-tet alone become int imate friends and even occas ional collaborators.
In August '1 991, In the middleofthe Intense Intellectual dlscussionsofthe fifth Atvar Aatto Sympos ium trl
Jyvaskyta in Central Finland. I enticed Steven to vi Sit the ext raordinary Petajiwesi Church, forty kilometers
away, bUi lt in 1764 by a local peasant master bU ilder On the way to the chu rch, I told Steven that the
primitive drawi ng of a cross-shaped f loor plan for the church. which th e local farmer co ngregation had
submitted to the Royal Swedi sh Court (Finland was part of Sweden at t hat t ime) for approval. had been
rejected and stamped "unacceptable." Due to the slow pace of communications at the time, however.
the villagers had already managed to bui ld the church by the time the rejection letter from Stockholm
reached the village. The humble church is now a monument protec ted by UNESCO. The touchingly sincere
log vaults, im itating Rena issance stone stru ctures, sea led our friendship , I believe.
Holt had built rather small residential stru ctures and shop interiors unti l 1992, wh en he was
commiss ioned to execute the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art on a central site In HelSinki (1992-98) Sarphatistraat Offices
on the basis of his winn ing entry in the international competition, wh ich d rew th e record number of five Amsterdam , Th e Netherlands
1996-2000
hundred twenty entries, Despite the unarguable authonty proVIded by his competition victory, the design
task was exceptionally demand ing contextually, funct ionally, technically, and even politi cally. In addition
to the usual architectural considerati on s, Holl had to acquaint him self with the larger-th an- life figure of
Marshall Mannerh eim , whoseequestrian statue,next tothe m useum ,evoked a public controversy about the
suitabili ty of Holl's museum on it s site, and almost managed t o sink the project Tile museum commission
eventual ly took Holl's architectural practice to new professional complexities and requirements.
Simu ltaneously w ith the Ki asma project. Holl and his off ice were worki ng on two others that were
equ ally challengi ng: the Cranbrook Institu te of Sc ience in Bloomfield Hills, Mich igan (1993-98), the
extension an d renovation of the museum designed by Eliel Saa rinen in 193 1 (coinc identally, Kiasm a is
locate d only a block away from Eliel Saarinen's great Helsinki Railway Station) ; and the Chapel of S1.
Ignatius in Seattle (1994-97), t he city of Holl's childhood and youth, These t hree projects established
Steve n Holl's pOSiti on as one of the most Innova ti ve and prolific arc hitects of our t ime. In t hem he
developed his characte ristic senSibilities for integral spaces thattranscend the idea ot additive assembly
and tor his characteristi c strategies of reflected lightand color. sensuous materiality, and haptic detai ling.
He also perfected his persona l design methodology as well as Ilis m eth ods of co llaborating with
numerou s assistants and expert consu ltant s. His practi ce grew qui ckly Into an international operation
with numerous successful competitions and commissions in several European countries, the Near East,
Japan, China . Korea , and Cambodia in addition to various cities In the United States.
Holl has always disliked the idea of a rationa lized and instrumentalized pra ctice ; "corporate
arc hitectu re" is a notion with heaVily negative connotations In hiS language Instead of using linear,
repetiti ously modula r, and additive idea s, he ha s sought architectura l singularities, and hi s bui ldings
Sarphatistraat Offices
frequently appear as if t hey were carved or cast rather than assembled structures. These properties Amsterdam . The Netherlands
give rise to an experience offiniteness and uniqueness bot h in the en semble and its parts. His su rface 1996-2000

58 I STEVEN HOLl I HEART JUHANI PAlLASMAA I THOUGHT AND PHENOMENA ' 59

 patterns , su ch as window an d wall subdivisions , or even the composition of a set of cupboard doors Stretto House
and drawers, usually form interlock ing figures that give rise to a visual coherence akin to the visua l Dallas , TX. United States
singu larity of Eduardo Chill ida's sculpture pieces. Holl's use of lhe golden section as his proportional 1989-91
system also strengthens this sense of coherence. "Proportion can be fell more than directly perceived."
he points out "It is, like cacophony and harmony in music. quite subjective and quite powerful ."3
Holl's determined and continued experimentation and deliberate avoidance of a fixed sIgnature style are
made possible by his working method. He com bines a subtle. artistically tuned , intimate and personal search
through small watercolor sketches with the use of poetic verbal metaphors and potent conceptual diagrams
(often drawn from scientific notions),studles in physical models and, finally, computer-generated development
and production drawings. The computer is used for the purposes of developing the scheme and producing
precise documents for execution. not for generating a formal language or expression .As Holl explains:

We use compulerized techniques in almost every stage of the design process except the initial
conception. For me the original concept sketch must start with an analogue process intimately
con necting mind-hand-eye. I feel this IS the only way to be completely con nected to the subtleties
and qualities of the role intUition plays in conception. In the initial drawing, I feel a direct connection
to spiritual meaning and the fusion of idea and space conception. After that the work can be digitally
supercharged. The proce ss can take off using all the rapid computerized tools possible .... In a positive
sense, new computer potenlial has liberated our design process to be even more imaginative.'

The physical and mental intimacy and tacti lity of the early phases of work, combined with the architect's
phenomenological interest in light, materiality, and detailing, secure the pre sence of the human hand in the
encounter with the completed building. HOll's bUildings usually project an intentional roughness instead of
the usual slick perfection of today's avant-garde and minimalist architectures. Thi s deliberate aVOidance
of the forced perfection of su rfaces and finishes generates a sen se of openness and presents an invitation
in stead of the air of exclusion and rejection often projected by buildings of obsess ive technical perfection.
Steven Holl has managed to develop an except io nally convincing interp lay of thought and form.
th inking and making, words and mater ials, technology and arti stic expression. Architect s' verba l
philosophica l formulatio ns f requently con tradict the charact eri stics of the ir design work, but Holl's
physical forms and written words are cast ot the same emotion and matter and are both based on
the integrati on of perception . thought, and feel ing. They do not ari se frorn theoreti cal spec ulation and
reason but from imagination and l ived experience. In his first book ,Anchorlng (1989), Hol l acknowledges
these essential dialect ics of design albei t with an ai r of hesita tion .

Writing's relation to arch itectu re affords only an uncerta in mirror to be held up to evidence ; it is
ather in a wordless silence that we have the best chan ce to stumble into th at zone compr ised
of space, light, and rnatter that is architecture. Although they fall short of architectural eVidence,
words present a promise.The work is forced to carryover when words themselves cannot Words are
arrow s pointin g in the right directions; taken together, they form a map of architectu ral intentions. '

A decade or so later Hall already saw the rol e of philosophical investigation quite clearly and firmly:

A philosophy of architecture however casu al. drives th e work of any thinking arc hitect. It has been
an ongoi ng lifelong project for me t o develop-parallel t o bui lt works -a written account of the
aspirati on of architecture as a form ofthought. From rny first little manifesto, Anchoring (1 989), to
our collaborative work , Questions of Perception (1994), a phi losophy of architectu re is the elusive but
never achieved aim. The joy of building constructi ons driven by larger ideas is a wo nderful mystery.E

Stretto House
Early on Holl began using verbal and literary concepts as energizing and gu id ing mental images in hi s Dallas, TX, United States
design process. The Berkovitz House at Martha's Vineyard in Massac husetts (1984), fo r instance, wa s 1989 - 91

60 I STEVEN HOLL I HEART JUHANI PAlLASMM I THOUGHT AND PHENOMENA I 61

 Kiasma Museum of Cont emporary Art
inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick. or more precisely, by the story In the novel accord ing to which Helsinki, Fin land
he Indian tribe that originally inhabited this region created a unique dwelling type by stretching skins 1997-98
or bark over a whale skeleton thallhey found on the beach . Holl's house on Lhe beach is a metaphorica l
skeleton , with the dense wooden frame standing for tile whale's rib bones.
Holl named the various residential units of tile Bndge of Houses project to suggest Individualized
dwellers and architectural narratives tailored for the personalized occupants; House of the Decider,
House of the Doubter, House f or a Man without OpinIOn s, The Riddle, Dream House, Four Tower House,
Marter and Memory.The fi ctiti ous clients that he imagined for his proj ect for the Autonomous Artisans'
Hou sing were : papermaker, woodworker, boatbuilder, mason , glass etcher, plaste re r, and metalworker.
Similarly, the imagined clients, "the society of strangers" of the Hybl'id Building bui lt in Florida , were
ragic poet, musician, and mathematician .The personification of dwellers in a housing project evidenH
helps Holl bridge t he alienating voi d of anonymity; a profound architect envisions the life that takes
place in the space he is designing, not solely its geometri c and visual properties "Let us assume a wal l:
what takes place behind it?" lhe poet Jean Tardieu advises us architect s.'Yet we usually do not have the
interest to imagine the lives that take place in the houses that we are des igni ng.
Holl's proJ8ctfor the Knut Ham sun Center (1994 - 2009), currently in its final phase ill Hamar0Y, Norway,
is a scheme driven by literary co ncepts from Hamsun's literary masterpiece Hunger (1 890) The basic
concept of a "body of invisi ble forces" is drawn from the writer's semi-deliriou s confession "I wa s nothing
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art
but a battleground fo r inVisible forces.'·sThe architect has included other scenes f rom th e novel , su ch as Helsi nki , Finland
tha t of "a girl with her sleeves rolled up lwholleaned out and began poli shing the panes on the oUlside."9 1992-98
Holl has also used mus ic al metaphors or analogues in his architectural work . The Stretto House in
Dalla s, Texas (1989-91) is based on the musical concept of "stretto" (a fugue motif used to accompa ny
itself to form a counterpoint) and Bela Bartok's Music for Strings, Perc ussion, ond Celeste (1 937). The
four movements of the musical score as well as its subd ivision into percussion (heavy) and string
(light) com ponents are reflected in the spatial, fo rmal . and materi al structures of the hou se. Another
example of musi cal ins pi rat ion In Holl's wal k IS the project for the Sarphatistraat Offic es in Amsterdam
(1 996- 2000), the refle cted light and color of which , trapped behind the perforate d metal fac;: ade s, echo
a co ncept derivi ng from tile music of Morton Feldman's Patterns in a Chromatic Field (1 981).
Steven Holl's most effici ent creative tool is the concept-a potent fu sion of a metaphor and an
al-chiteclural idea in a singular guiding image. His metaphoric design concepts, such as Seven Bottles of
Light in a Stone Box (Chapel of St. Ignat ius) ; Strange Attractors, Hou se of Vapor, Story of Water, Garden of
Science, and House of Ice (an addition to the Cranbrook Institute of Science) ; Tripleness and Right Hand
Rule (Bellevue Art Museum, 1997-2001 ), Menger Sponge (Sarphatistraat Offices), Porosity (Simmons
Hall, 1999-2002) , Stone and Fea ther (Nelson Atkin s Museum , 1999-2007), and Writing witll Light (Long
Island , 2001-04) , all suggest poeti c or SCientific images. Maurice MerleaLJ-Ponty's notion of "chias m,"
hich the architect used as the guiding conce pt and code name of hi s competition entry fo r the Helsinki
Museum of Contemporary Art, was later accepted as the very name of the museum, Ki asma k
Beginni ng With hi s early career, Hall has been worki ng With the strategy of "limited concept: which .
as he writes , is reformulated fo r each site and Gach uni que program. ... La nguage becomes the vehicle
of 're cognition ofthe concept' as argued extensively by Ernst Cassirer in his oook Philosophy of Symbolic
Forms (19 23-29). "\ Holl explains the seminal role of conceptual diagrams in his design process, staling:

I depend entirely on conce pt diagrams, I consider them my secret weapon They allow me t o
move afresh from one project to the next. from one site to the next. I r I approached projects with
a f ixed vocabulary, I would be exhausted by now I would have lost my Interest In architecture
long ago Finding an initial concept fOI each project that ca ptu re s the essence of arc hitectural
oppo rtunities unique to that project is. fo r me, a way IIlto it. the door t hrough whicr new ideas
enter archi tectu re. Though many if not most peo ple who appreciate my work seem t o focus Oil its
ex perienti al or phenomenological qualities. the light, the use of materials , and so forth-fO!' me,
what is importan t is the idea . •

62 I STEVEN HOll ! HEAfll JLJHANI PAUASMAA / THOUGHT AND PHENOMENA I 63

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