, Helsinki, 2003-06 Shopping Centre, Helsinki, 1989-91 landscape bridge, Helsinki, 2002 Juhani Pallasmaa studied architecture at
Helsinki University of Technology, qualifying as an architect in 1966. He taught architecture at
Haile Selassie I University in
Ethiopia in 1972-74. Pallasmaa was a partner in the architecture firm Juutilainen - Kairamo - Mikkola - Pallasmaa in 1966-1972, and in partnership with Kirmo Mikkola in the firm Mikkola - Pallasmaa in 1976-81. He established his own office in 1986. In terms of architectural production, the work of Juhani Pallasmaa has undergone a shift during his career. His early career is characterised by concerns with rationalism, standardization and prefabrication. This was partly due to the influence of his mentor
Aulis Blomstedt, who was very much concerned with proportional systems and standardization. Pallasmaa's first key work demonstrating these principles was the Moduli 225 (with
Kristian Gullichsen), an industrial-produced summer house, 1969–1971, of which around six were built in Finland. However, the key models for this type of architecture were both Japanese architecture and the refined abstractions of
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In Finland this type of architecture is referred to as "constructivism" – with only a family resemblance to the avant-gardist
Russian Constructivism – and at that time, the late 1950s and 1960s, stood in opposition to the work of
Alvar Aalto, who was increasingly seen in his home country as an idiosyncratic individualist. But the interest in Japan also contained the seeds for Pallasmaa's later concerns; materiality and a phenomenology of experience. It was after returning from teaching in Africa that Pallasmaa turned away from pure constructivism, and took up his concerns with psychology, culture, and
phenomenology. His concern for details and small works such as exhibition design has sometimes earned him the label "jewel-box architect". 2006 saw the completion of his largest ever work, the
Kamppi Center, incorporating the main bus station, a shopping centre and housing in central Helsinki, though the work was split up into different sections involving various architects, and overall design was under the control of architects Helin & Co. ==Architectural works (selection)==