Is Architecture Beautiful? Nikos A. Salingaros University of Texas at San Antonio May 2016
Is this building beautiful?
That s a nasty question! Architecture students are taught that minimalist, brutalist buildings (those showing rough, unfinished concrete surfaces) are beautiful But common people often react with horror and repulsion at such structures So should we trust what we are told by experts, or our own intuition?
A medieval cloister
How do we judge? The cloister is loved by common persons and hated by architects (who might enjoy it for tourism, but violently reject it as a model to use in building today) The brutalist concrete building is loved by architects and hated by common persons Is there an objective manner to judge what type of architecture is actually good for us?
A biological basis for beauty Humans do not define beauty: nature does, based upon forms that help our survival If we responded wrongly to forms in our environment, we were dead or got eaten! Our evolution hard-wired structural preferences in our body and brain But we are told to like structures that contradict our neural system and what it s tuned to!
Cognitive dissonance You are given contradictory messages by different experts; or what an expert says is contradicted by your own body Triggers mental and bodily discomfort a psychological state of extreme anxiety To escape from the pain of cognitive dissonance, PEOPLE WILL CHOOSE A FALSE ALTERNATIVE JUST TO END THEIR MENTAL CONFLICT!
The Solomon Asch Experiment (1951) Which line is longer?
The result was: line B is longer! A large group of subjects responded orally, one after another Everyone in the room except the one true subject was instructed to say, quite naturally: line B is longer! The experimental setup manoeuvred so the sole subject was the last to answer
Visceral attraction to abstract patterns depends upon our biological evolution
Scale-free A fractal shows complex structure at every magnification Just like our lungs and nervous system, because those are networks self-linked on different scales Plants are intrinsically fractal: ferns, cauliflowers, branching plant forms
Fractal scaling
Humans seek fractals and details
Healing environments Specific configurations, surfaces, and volumes promote our body to heal naturally Those patterns come from biology There is strong evidence that those same qualities increase children s intelligence Applied to hospital design until the 20 th Century; after that, the model for hospitals has been a shoe-last factory in Germany
Thus, humankind creates artefacts
and traditional buildings
Summary of biological rules Fractal, scale-free structure Complex details: every detail contains more details when magnified Symmetry emphasizing the vertical axis attaches us to gravity Multiple symmetries condense and order visual information that might otherwise ovewhelm our cognitive system
Some buildings are organic
whereas others are modest
Descriptions of complexity SIMPLE systems require a short description COMPLEX systems require a rather lengthy description (Kolmogorov-Chaitin) The most complex system has no symmetries at all, and thus requires a description as large as the system itself no shorthand Symmetries create redundancies, which cut down on the necessary descriptive length
Reflectional symmetry
Rotational symmetry
Translational symmetry
Glide reflection
Monotonous repetition is bad Something, usually a simple module, repeats in one or more directions If some new larger structure DOES NOT ARISE through grouping components on a bigger scale, then This violates fractal scaling, where something new is defined every time the scale increases
How units group into larger wholes
Symmetry breaking is good Sophisticated concept from theoretical physics Establish an overall symmetry, but violate it slightly on the smaller scales Advantage: when a global symmetry is only approximate, it can no longer be collapsed into a simple repetition
Broken translational and reflectional symmetry
Perfect global symmetry is collapsible Can be condensed into a very simple description a generative rule Take one unit and repeat it indefinitely Or, cover a wall with one simple tile The most viscerally attractive examples of symmetry in architecture DO NOT REPEAT SIMPLISTICALLY
Local rotational symmetries; broken global translational symmetry
Symmetries used in architecture
All of this is now banned! Architects are not allowed to use biologically-derived tools to design human environments If any traditional tool is seen in a contemporary building, the architectural press condemns and ridicules it Contemporary buildings are judged as valid only if they violate our biology!
Eliminate symmetries
The industrial approach to design The surrounding geometry doesn t affect machines in any way We can situate machines within minimal spaces they don t react Design buildings and cities as if people don t interact with their enviroment!
Organic forms at the wrong scale
Architecture for organisms Organisms have their own responses to environmental information threats, food, reproductive opportunity, etc. Survival depends upon reacting to hostile conditions, and profiting from advantages In designing spaces for organisms, we need to know how they will react according to their own set of survival-based responses
Architecture for people It is presumptive to control people, and to force them to live or work in hostile spaces The designer doesn t decide what a comfortable environment is the user does Buildings based on abstract and maybe even artistically-attractive images often fail miserably as living environments
Why build menacing structures?
Do architects study feedback? No. You would think that they would evaluate their buildings to see whether users feel healthy in them, and perform medical studies to see if users get sick But none of this is part of architecture Design is now image-based: if it looks exciting on a computer screen, build it!
Documented forms and spaces It makes sense to experiment with a large variety of forms, spaces, and surfaces Find people s reaction to them is it positive, neutral, or negative? Document those findings for designers Then, re-use only known healing typologies Carefully avoid typologies that create anxiety
Christopher Alexander s A Pattern Language (1977)
One typical pattern Pattern 106: Positive Outdoor Space. The built structures partially surrounding an outdoor space, be it rectangular or circular, must define, in its wall elements, a concave perimeter boundary, making the space itself convex overall Patterns are not taught in architecture school, because they supposedly restrict creativity!
Thousands of useless open spaces because they ignored this pattern!
Mistrust the 20 th Century! Many toxic ideas and typologies were introduced as innovations You need to judge what is good or bad among 20 th -Century production Prepare by developing a sensitivity through exposure to the greatest art and architecture of previous millennia
Look for the roots Art, architecture, and music evolved over millennia, reaching many expressive peaks There is a strong continuity in history A collective endeavor a creative tradition led up to supreme creations by some individual genius or anonymous artisan But design in the 20 th Century reversed its aims and cut itself off from historical roots
Conclusion: 1. Tools you can use In judging the built environment, be sensitive and rely on your gut feeling and intuition Don t accept what so-called experts tell you if that contradicts your own body signals Be aware that massive propaganda has worked in the past to mislead entire nations Architecture is not immune to those tricks
Conclusion: 2. Trust biology Could I be just another expert telling you what to like or dislike exactly what I m warning you against? No, because everyone s body reacts the same way to objects and environments For those who prefer contemporary environments, their mind is in constant conflict with their body causing stress