I recently returned from a brief trip to Taliesin West just outside of Scottsdale Arizona. Taliesin continues to function as a school as much like Frank Lloyd Wright ran it as possible. The scholar (architect) in residence this winter is Juhani Pallasmaa. After being introduced by email to him by Larry Doll at the University of Texas, I scheduled a trip to visit him.
I listened to a seminar given by Mr Pallasmaa in the board room in the studio building at Taliesin. The seminar was everything I would have hoped for. The topic was "Material Imagination".
Afterward I had dinner with him and the students and faculty in the dining hall. Then I spent the rest of the evening with Juhani and his beautiful wife Hanneli at their residence on the campus of Taliesin. While they are in residence, they are living in a home built by one of Frank Lloyd Wrights understudies. It is small and the architecture is very much in keeping with that of Taliesin West.
I learned so much and there is so much to say. I will probably refer to things I learned in future blogs, and certainly in my masters of design study at the University of Texas.