Aesthetics in Architecture -
What makes a house look beautiful?
What People THINK IS BEAUTY and What They do to get it
So many of my friends, upon moving into their new home, complained about the ugliness of previous owners upgrades and remodeling. They were so adamant to restore the original character and beauty back to their house - and to do it correctly too. When work was done, they were satidfied with their resutls. However, all they did was make the same mistakes as the previous owner with newer and more expensive products.
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but sadly today the beholder's eyes have been trained to accept low standards and allow advertisers to cloud artistic appreciation and distract us from our natural sense of aesthetics.
Today people see beauty in a house for reasons quite different from years ago. Although somewhat shallow, today's fast pace of life leaves little room for letting our minds direct us to perceive beauty in our conscious and unconscious minds. Here are some common examples.
Myth
To some people, a house can be beautiful just because it looks new and clean.
Homeowner Action
Vinyl siding and new windows will make an old house look new and clean.
Fact
When a house shows sign of age, and maintenance is an inconvenient expense, just like an old sofa, people put a "slip-cover" (vinyl siding) on their house covering it up. Vinyl siding reduces shadow lines which causes key features to appear differently, resulting in loss of character and a bland, flat appearance. (see Vinyl Siding page for more information)
Myth
To some, an old house can be beautiful because it has been remodeled or updated with trendy fashionable new products in an attempt to make it look new or more contemporary.
Homeowner Action
The latest gimmick advertised at Home Depot adds additional beauty. New replacement windows are a must. A brand new fashionable front door that is being marketed as a symbol of elegance and class flaunts success to the neighbors. A new porch railing in plastic is not only maintenance free but is much higher to modern day building code preventing your family and friends from always falling off the porch.
Fact
The epidemic of buying that vaguely Victorian door with leaded or beveled glass is still on the rise. People are buying this door and putting it on every style house without even thinking or caring how incompatible it looks on the house as a whole. Sadly no one ever considers matching the style of the door to the house to show intellect in addition to the success they foolishly flaunt. Those new windows have the greatest impact on destroying the character of the house - not to mention that new porch railing.
Undesirable Results from Updating Your Home
Work done as a result of updating, remodeling, or just plain maintenance, usually results in the loss of your home's beauty. Yes, people should care and maintain their house, however small modifications over the years without understanding some basic architectural rules of aesthetics, add up to create the unpleasing effect most houses now have.
Sources of Home Improvement and Design Advise - USE CAUTION
The biggest mistake people make is listening to home "improvement" marketing. Manufacturers of home "improvement" products are not only brainwashing homeowners, they are also brainwashing contractors and handymen anxious to do more business and install/sell these products. The shows on cable television are no different. Advertisers are their bread and butter, and as convincing as these "professionals" may be, It is evident many of them lack the traditional education necessary to remodel a house based on Aesthetics.
We Accept Poor Architectural Design
The homeowner actions (Myths) discussed above on what makes an old house beautiful, DO NOT make a house beautiful. However it is what most people look at to judge a home's beauty. It is not so much that people are shallow or have low standards, it is that we have evolved this way - our eyes have been trained because this is the norm - this is what we are accustomed to seeing and this is how it is done now.
Today's modern homes are flat, bleak, and un-intriguing. We not only accept this look, we expect it and are comfortable with it. Many old houses have the same problem. They have been altered and "improved" in a way that robs them of their beauty and character.
Today the majority of Architectural Schools no longer teach the theory and practice of traditional house design. Therefore the timeless traditional theories and concepts used to create great works in the past, whether large or small, elaborate or simple, which stimulate our minds, are mostly lost.
Stephen A. Mouzon, in his book "Traditional Construction Patterns" explains the following:
Although study after study has shown that the public prefers traditional architecture by overwhelming margins, most non-preservation architects and builders veer away in an attempt to cut costs and also due to lack of knowledge. Instead historic homes consist of misshapen pieces of modern or Disneyland interpreted traditional architecture stitched together with no clear vision of what the result should be.
The same is for current construction stitched together with semi-traditional pieces or architecture. Most people probably can't explain exactly what is wrong with this sort of building because there are just enough traditional pieces thrown in to make it look vaguely traditional at first glance just as Frankenstein looked vaguely human at first.
Elements of Beauty - Why is Aesthetics Important
The key is to train your eyes to recognize beauty NOT based on personal taste or preference. You need to be aware NOT to base beauty on a trendy item or look by a manufacturer trying to sell you something so he can get rich.
You must train your eyes to recognize beauty based on scientific principals of beauty.
Aesthetics is timeless concepts, rules, and principles, dealing with the expression of beauty and that which appeals to the senses.
Many principles, mathematics, and geometry create beauty.
Balance...Proportion...Scale...Symmetry...The Golden Mean/Rectangle...Gestalt Psychology
If you are interested there is an abundance of interesting information you may find on the internet which clarifies my point in more detail.
The purpose here is to not make you an architect but to provide a path for further research if you are interested, and emphasize the point, that these principles make beauty more of a science not something of personal taste. This is very important.
Psychological Effects of Aesthetics
Early Greek philosophers saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects of certain proportion seemed more attractive. Ancient Greek architecture is based on this view of symmetry and proportion. Modern research also suggests that people whose facial features are based on such principles are considered more attractive than those whose faces are not.
What we see with our eyes interacts with our brains. Our brains process it and that interplay dictates how our senses perceive what we are viewing and how we are affected by its beauty or lack of beauty.
Scans of peoples brains show a strong emotional response to visuals based on aesthetic principles.
Perception is very important since our minds perceive shapes and forms differently than they actually exist. Geshalt psychology explores how the mind forms or interprets patterns. This theory is not only used in architecture but also in landscaping etc. For example, you should not plant 2, 4 or an even amount of shrubs together. Always plant in groups of 3, 5, etc - odd numbers only. Your mind will interpret these shrubs as a group, not as 2 or 4 individual shrubs or soldiers standing guard. Your eyes will be confused - not knowing what to look at first or where to rest.
Proportion, how one shape relates to another is most important and is one of the most common errors in new construction and in the remodeling of old homes (common with replacement windows and alteration of window frames). If proportions are not observed perfectly, the visual image of architecture will be defective. However, proportion by itself does not create beauty in architecture. The essential principles of architecture derive from regularity, symmetry, and a combination of all the other elements.
Doors and windows that do not use the same architectural language as the building to which they are attached tell a very confusing story.
The following is best stated by architect and author Jonathan Hale:
There was a time in our past when one could walk down any street and be surrounded by harmonious buildings. Such a street wasn't perfect ..., but it was alive. The old buildings smiled, while our new buildings are faceless. The old buildings sang, while the buildings of our age have no music in them.
The designers of the past succeeded easily where most today fail because they saw something different when they looked at a building. They saw a pattern in light and shade. When they let pattern guide them, they opened their ability to make forms of rich complexity. The forms they made began to dance.
A great building can give us the same exhilaration we experience in a natural landscape. We expect that of great buildings; but we tend to forget that a townscape of ordinary buildings, embodying the same principles, can also exhilarate us - exhilarate, and make us feel we belong.
Shadows make buildings come alive. Most homes today look bland because architects and builders stopped looking at buildings as patterns in light and shade and had started seeing them primarily as devices to be used for comfort. Unfortunately we accept this and expect this. By noticing these changes you will gradually train your eyes and not only see but feel how all the elements of a house fit and work together creating the beauty the building was designed to have.
Summary
Beauty is both conscious and unconscious. Aesthetics is based on principles from early Greek times. Old historic houses built in the early 20th century and before were designed with this in mind. Subtle changes over the years results in loss of the harmony and character the house originally had.
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but authentic details and materials based on fundamental principles of structure and proportion resonate with every eye. Dislike of a "remuddled" building is not a personal prejudice, but merely a recognition of a mental law by which we are all controlled.