Beauty, It’s Not Just in the Eye of the Beholder

The term “beauty” has all but been eradicated from the vernacular of architects and designers for over 100 years.  The era of Modernism, based on reductionist, minimalist, intellectually justified aesthetics has resulted in a built environment that fails to meet one of the most fundamental human needs; the feeling of pleasure through the experience of beauty!

In this second blog of the Happy by Design series, I stake our claim for the rebirth of BEAUTY in home design!  I explain how beauty is encoded for in our DNA and why it’s an essential component to a happy home life. 

Whatever Happened to Beauty?

Beauty was highly revered throughout most of architectural history with great emphasis placed on symmetry, symbolism, intricate design detail, and intrigue.  Think the Pantheon, Taj Mahal, and Villa Rotunda.  Architects were considered talented and influential artists who made the built environment a more beautiful place to live…that is, up until the era of Modernism.

The industrial revolution of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries drastically shifted people’s perspective of the world around them.  The mechanized approach to goods imposed a reductionist relationship to life where function dominated form. 

After WWII, the need to rebuild quickly and affordably further exacerbated the demand for utilitarian structures.  Homes became simplified boxes that provided shelter and not much more.  Beauty was viewed as unnecessary, nonfunctional, and impractical. 

Worse yet, was the societal acceptance and architectural influence over the way structures were spoken about.  The word “beautiful” was cast out, demonized, and degraded to a sinful word in the vernacular of architects.  Many architects and designers still refrain from using the word beautiful when designing and describing their creations.

This reductionist relationship to architecture emphasizes the intellectual over the intuitive, forgetting our ancestral roots, and negating the human’s subconscious experience of architecture.

Read the full blog... https://www.pippinhomedesigns.com/you-inspired-living/beauty