Definition of Aesthetics!

Definition of Aesthetics

The word aesthetics is Greek in original and means perception.

There are several definitions for the aesthetics. 

1. Plato believed in the beauty of nature and the beauty of geometry, line and circle some like beauty something spiritual with the source of the soul.
2. Aristotle gave objective sense to beauty. that is  personal creativity is important and architect becomes means of the expression of beauties of mathematics on the basis of harmony, symmetry and order.
3. Peter Smith believes on three levels for aesthetic values; Fashion, design styles in different cultural periods, and aesthetic-cognitive core values that these three levels are changed over time according to the circumstances..

1. The Aim Of Aesthetics?

• Sigmund Freud consider the goal of beauty as enjoyment of art and the emotional relief.

• According to Theodor Adorno, aesthetic behavior is the ability to understand the object .
• According to information theory, that tries to explain the beauty with mathematical language, aesthetic sense is achieved when the mind is able to detect a relative order, in a series of apparently non-regular and confused provocations

George Santayana classifies the aesthetics into three

Ø  1) sensory, 2)form and 3)symbolic aesthetics

Sensory aesthetics analysis are strongly internal and subjective. The issue of form aesthetics is the role and effect of shapes, proportion, rhythm, scale, complexity, color and other elements of the built environment. Symbolic aesthetic is deal with the pleasure from people's mental history and mentality of the configuration and characteristics of the built environment. 

Form

Form is the perceptible characteristic and identity of an object. Form is the manifestation of its constituent factors.It has in creating space, it has many main aspects. 

• The first is the aesthetic of form that the appearance and characteristics of form  
• The second is the relation of form and function and its effect on formation process of form and
• the third is the mean and content of form. 

Form is a mean that is mostly used for the expression of a symbolic concept and can express different meanings. Ability and capability to convert a subjective matter to form or in other words, to convert the idea to shape and form is one of the important parts in design process. 

According to Frank Lloyd Wright, beauty is a manifestation of the principled proportionality as line, form and color. According to the definitions Rudolf Arnheim expresses in his book The Dynamics of Architectural Form can have principles such as order, harmony, symmetry, proportionality, balance, unity, etc. Wright  mentions the legality of order, balance and unity in nature as the aesthetic factors.

Visual Characteristics of Form

The visual characteristics of form include visual shape, size, color, texture, place, direction and balance.. For example, the application of line in the external form of a building can create special visual effects. 

"Shape is called as the distance line of a visible surface or environment of a volume and the main means of detecting and identifying form of object.

" Length, width and height of form that are called dimensions, define the size and proportions of form.

The other characteristic of form is color. Strength of colors is hidden in their own characteristics. These characteristics are in the colors’ darkness and clarity, coldness and warmth, saturation and level of surfaces area. Texture is presented in architecture by choosing different materials.

Francis Ching introduces texture as the characteristic of the faces of form and knows it effective on the kind of the viewer’s feeling and light reflection.

Visual balance is a characteristic of form that expresses its stability or suspension. In fact, the balance is an equivalent perceived manner. This balance include stability and is applied in creating the sense of security and calmness. 

The Effect of Form in Aesthetics

The expression of contents using the visual forms is simpler than the spoken and written language. Since understanding the visual forms is easy one. For example, sometime, just seeing is enough to understand its function and gives us the necessary information to evaluate and understand it. As example, the proportionate of the windows, position of the entrance, ornamental elements, style, material and skyline of the building in an urban environment are among the characteristics that are constituent of unity or lack of unity and integration of a street, neighborhood or region. 

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