Quote:
Originally Posted by Spocket
I guess I'm ranting but it's just that I don't understand how anybody can look at St. Petersburg and ever find any North American architecture interesting again. We build boxes and people think they're beautiful. I don't understand it.
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Beauty is a subjective thing. There are general rules of course, but it comes down to who the observer is and what the the things observed mean to the observer.
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A digression...
Merriam-Webster gives definition of "beauty":
1: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit : loveliness
2: a beautiful person or thing ; especially : a beautiful woman
3: a particularly graceful, ornamental, or excellent quality
4: a brilliant, extreme, or egregious example or instance <that mistake was a beauty>
It is OK, but what qualities should an object possess to give pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalt the mind or spirit? My take on it is that when one considers some object or entity - be it a building, a city, a human or animal body, a plant/flower, a piece of music, etc., it is percieved as beautiful when some or all of the following conditions are met
1. it is structured (has necessary amount of detail, consists of parts)
something bland, monotone, repetitive will rarely be considered beautiful
think of classical music vs rap, or a fractal object vs competely overcast sky)
2. the observer understands how parts complement each other; their purpose and functionality (when relevant)
3. the parts relate to each other in certain proportions
4. the object makes an allusion or reference (humorous, erotic, maybe even dramatic etc.) to something important to the observer; typically when an object is judged beautiful - it is a pleasant allusion
end of digression
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So, while a big glass box may not have enough structure by itself when looked at from a close distance to be called beautiful, it may be a part of something more complex (such a skyline), which may as well be considered interesting and even beautiful.