Architect, professor emeritus, Helsinki. Practiced design first in collaboration with other architects, and in 1983-2012 through his office in Helsinki.
He has held positions, such as Rector of the Institute of Industrial Design Helsinki, Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Professor and Dean of the School of Architecture, Helsinki University of Technology, and several visiting professorships in the USA, and taught and lectured in numerous universities in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury 2008-2014. Pallasmaa has published 50 books and 400 essays, articles and prefaces, and his writings have been translated into 30 languages. His widely known books include: The Embodied Image, The Thinking Hand, The Architecture of Image: existential space in cinema, and The Eyes of the Skin. He is honorary member of SAFA, AIA and RIBA, Academician of the International Academy of Architecture, and has received numerous Finnish and international awards and five Honorary Doctorates.