Juhani Pallasmaa and Selma Tir
A Conversation About Architecture and Neuroscience
Every two years The Daylight Award honors and supports daylight research and daylight in architecture through two awards: one in architecture and one in research. A one-hour conversation between architect and writer Juhani Pallasmaa and neuroscientist Selma Tir, presented by The Daylight Award, explores the profound role of daylight in our lives and finds some common ground between these artistic and scientific fields.
Neither Juhani Pallasmaa nor Selma Tir are strangers to The Daylight Award: Pallasmaa, who focuses on the existential and emotional dimensions of architecture in his writings, has been a member of the award jury for a number of years, and served as jury chair in the most recent cycle, in 2024. Tir, a PhD candidate in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford who is focused on circadian rhythms, has been involved with the so-called Daylight Award Community since 2022. Furthermore, Pallasmaa is no stranger to neuroscience, having contributed essays to publications focused on the relationship between architecture and neuroscience, and having co-edited Mind in Architecture: Neuroscience, Embodiment, and the Future of Design in 2015. Pallasmaa's conversation with Tir took place in December in Pallasmaa's office in Helsinki — watch it below, at YouTube, or on The Daylight Award website.