Theme

RECLAIMING BEA+UTY

In times of ecological, social and economic crisis, discussing beauty in architecture seemed problematic and even controversial for a long time. Aesthetics were secondary to more urgent values: sustainability, inclusion, context sensitivity. Yet today, the debate about beauty seems to be playing a significant role once again. The New European Bauhaus explicitly states that architecture should not only be functional and sustainable, but also aesthetic. Talking about beauty raises important reflections, not only about collective values and shared histories, but also about identity and political mechanisms. What does this mean for designers and what new design language will emerge from it? Is there a new aesthetic canon emerging from reuse, circular construction and material recovery? In A+319, we explore how aesthetics is repositioning itself in architectural practice.

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