Beauty in Architecture
Perspectives from Theory and Practice
Published on 16. October 2025
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-350-47727-8 (ISBN)
Description
Beauty in Architecture brings together the views of architects, artists, critics, historians, and philosophers to explore how beauty can again become an integral part of discussions about architecture.
Despite its recent resurgence in the public debate about the built environment, the notion of beauty remains problematic and contested in critical discourse about architecture. When the topic is addressed, it is either treated with suspicion, historicized or contextualised, or substituted with other -often equally problematic- terms, such as order, legibility, atmosphere, or character. This collection brings together voices from theory, scholarship, and practice to show that a conversation about beauty in architecture is necessary, not only because the general public speaks easily and frequently about beauty in architecture, but also because much can be gained from taking it seriously.
Bringing together a diverse range of perspectives, the essays reflect on the themes, categories, and concepts that should be part of such a conversation and show how talking about beauty engages important reflections on its ontology and what it involves: values, communities, collectives and shared histories, environment, identity, and political or legal mechanisms and institutions. A must read for designers and theorists alike, this volume allows readers to discover new strategies and concepts to foster the discussion of beauty in architecture.
Despite its recent resurgence in the public debate about the built environment, the notion of beauty remains problematic and contested in critical discourse about architecture. When the topic is addressed, it is either treated with suspicion, historicized or contextualised, or substituted with other -often equally problematic- terms, such as order, legibility, atmosphere, or character. This collection brings together voices from theory, scholarship, and practice to show that a conversation about beauty in architecture is necessary, not only because the general public speaks easily and frequently about beauty in architecture, but also because much can be gained from taking it seriously.
Bringing together a diverse range of perspectives, the essays reflect on the themes, categories, and concepts that should be part of such a conversation and show how talking about beauty engages important reflections on its ontology and what it involves: values, communities, collectives and shared histories, environment, identity, and political or legal mechanisms and institutions. A must read for designers and theorists alike, this volume allows readers to discover new strategies and concepts to foster the discussion of beauty in architecture.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
39 color illus
Dimensions
Height: 273 mm
Width: 115 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-47727-8 (9781350477278)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Nele De Raedt is an Associate Professor at UCLouvain's Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Urbanism, specializing in the history, theory, and criticism of architecture. Her research delves into architectural theory and thought from the late medieval and early modern periods, with a keen focus on the ethical and political dimensions of architectural patronage and design. She also explores how architecture is experienced and debated within broader public discourse.
Maarten Delbeke is Professor in the History and Theory of Architecture at the Institut fuer Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur (gta) at ETH Zuerich. He works on the art and architecture of the early modern period in Europe, and its 19th- and 20th-century reception, with a particular interest in the intersection between religion and aesthetics, architecture's relationship to printed and digital media, and origin myths. He is an architecture critic and the founding editor-in-chief of Architectural Histories.
Maarten Delbeke is Professor in the History and Theory of Architecture at the Institut fuer Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur (gta) at ETH Zuerich. He works on the art and architecture of the early modern period in Europe, and its 19th- and 20th-century reception, with a particular interest in the intersection between religion and aesthetics, architecture's relationship to printed and digital media, and origin myths. He is an architecture critic and the founding editor-in-chief of Architectural Histories.
Content
Introduction: The Problem of Beauty in Architecture - Maarten Delbeke (ETH Zuerich, Switzerland) and Nele De Raedt (UCLouvain, Belgium)
Practice
1. Reframing Beauty - Adam Caruso (Caruso St. John Architects, UK & ETH Zuerich, Switzerland)
2. How Reductionism Cancelled Beauty and Other Speculations - Willem Jan Neutelings (Neutelings Riedijk Architecten, Netherlands)
3. The [In]justice of Beauty in Architecture - Mariam Issoufou Kamara (Atelier Masomi & ETH Zuerich, Switzerland)
4. The Pink-Fingered Dawn -Saar Meganck (Dhooge & Meganck Architecture & Architecture Academy Maastricht, Netherlands)
5. Molly House Series - Pablo Bronstein (Artist)
Theory
6. Exploring a Measured Beauty through an Ancestral Landscape in the Pearl River Delta - Hong Wan Chan (Ghent University, Belgium)
7. The Beautiful Architecture of OMA/Rem Koolhaas - Christophe Van Gerrewey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland)
8. Beauty, Architecture and the Affective Sciences: A Political Discourse - Daniel Sik (UCLouvain, Belgium)
9. Beauty and Aesthetic Formalism in Architectural Theory - Branko Mitrovic (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway)
10. Gothic at the Margins: Architectural Beauty in the Colonial Antipodes - Adam Jasper (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Emma Letizia Jones (Hong Kong University)
11. The Place of Beauty in the Law on the Built Environment: A Flemish Perspective - Stephanie De Somer (Antwerp University, Belgium)
12. The Beauty of Architecture and its Vicissitudes - Vlad Ionescu (Hasselt University, Belgium)
Practice
1. Reframing Beauty - Adam Caruso (Caruso St. John Architects, UK & ETH Zuerich, Switzerland)
2. How Reductionism Cancelled Beauty and Other Speculations - Willem Jan Neutelings (Neutelings Riedijk Architecten, Netherlands)
3. The [In]justice of Beauty in Architecture - Mariam Issoufou Kamara (Atelier Masomi & ETH Zuerich, Switzerland)
4. The Pink-Fingered Dawn -Saar Meganck (Dhooge & Meganck Architecture & Architecture Academy Maastricht, Netherlands)
5. Molly House Series - Pablo Bronstein (Artist)
Theory
6. Exploring a Measured Beauty through an Ancestral Landscape in the Pearl River Delta - Hong Wan Chan (Ghent University, Belgium)
7. The Beautiful Architecture of OMA/Rem Koolhaas - Christophe Van Gerrewey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland)
8. Beauty, Architecture and the Affective Sciences: A Political Discourse - Daniel Sik (UCLouvain, Belgium)
9. Beauty and Aesthetic Formalism in Architectural Theory - Branko Mitrovic (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway)
10. Gothic at the Margins: Architectural Beauty in the Colonial Antipodes - Adam Jasper (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Emma Letizia Jones (Hong Kong University)
11. The Place of Beauty in the Law on the Built Environment: A Flemish Perspective - Stephanie De Somer (Antwerp University, Belgium)
12. The Beauty of Architecture and its Vicissitudes - Vlad Ionescu (Hasselt University, Belgium)