The La Trobe Reading Room demonstrates what Pallasmaa means by phenomenology. When
we're in that space, the light from the dome isn't just there; it changes how we see and feel the
room throughout the day. We're aware of how big it is, how the desks are arranged around you,
and that affects how we move and your sense of being both alone and with others.
The materials and colors aren't just visual either – we can touch and look carefully at the mark on
the wood surface to feel the flow of time it has been through. Even the sound of people whispering
and writing on paper, which adds to the feeling of being enclosed yet open.
This is quite different from how modernist architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Adolf Loos, and Le
Corbusier thought about space. They often focused on creating these clean, visually striking
designs, but sometimes they lost that richer, full-body experience that Pallasmaa mentions.