Outlining Aesthetics Aesthetics; a word both referred to as an adjective and noun. As Satio (2008, p.1) states, it’s a way one describes art philosophically, through the action of pre examining that art, through judgement, experience and quality. The buildings which we find appealing, have some sort of value to us, as De Botton (2007, p.75) highlights that….”The buildings we admire […] whether through their materials, shapes or colours, to such legendarily positive qualities as friendliness”. This quote shows that when making a judgment on a building, the appearance of the building is considered holistically, as we base our opinion on factors like comfort, surrounding, and access. Having gathered the above information, I went ahead and created my own primary research, where I gathered ten participants who wanted to take part in my questionnaire.
Photo One: (Saito, 2008).
This questionnaire was to help me get people’s opinion on what they distinguish as aesthetically appealing. The next task was to find out if they think sustainability limits aesthetics of a building. Figure one, shows the results were inconclusive, as half of the participants agreed and the rest disagreed. It was to read this in their statements. However, comparing this to figure two, were they had to select one of the buildings that they found appealing, then state if it’s a passivhaus building. Majority of the participants selected those buildings which were in fact passivhaus buildings, without knowing and not many selected those which weren’t passivhaus buildings. The findings demonstrated that this topic of aesthetics is very subjective as each participant had its own opinion, but what was interesting to see was how those who selected the passivhaus buildings, didn’t seem to agree that such buildings can be both sustainable and appealing. Therefore, to define what others find appealing, factors such as design, location, context, windows, lightening and so on., play a huge role.
Photo Two: (De Botton, 2007).
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