The Thinking Hand. Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture — Juhani Pallasmaa

"The Thinking Hand" analyzes the essence of the hand and its crucial role in the evolution of human skills, intelligence, and conceptual abilities. The hand is not merely a faithful and passive executor of the brain's intentions, but possesses its own intentionality and skills. Its author, Juhani Pallasmaa, emphasizes the relatively autonomous and unconscious processes of thought and action in writing, craftsmanship, or in the production of art and architecture.

Organized into eight chapters, this study explores the silent understanding that lies hidden in the existential part of the human condition and its specific modes of being and experiencing. Ultimately, its objective is to help shake the foundations of the conceptual, intellectual, and verbal knowledge paradigm, hegemonic in the sphere of architecture, in favor of another kind of knowledge: the tacit and non-conceptual knowledge of our bodily processes.