The Aesthetics of Transformation

• Main Author: Vladimir Mako
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Athens Institute for Education and Research 2017-07-01
• Series: Athens Journal of Architecture
• Online Access: https://www.athensjournals.gr/architecture/2017-3-3-3-Mako.pdf

In the context of the traditional definition of aesthetics as the “science on beauty”, the title of this paper can be understood as a contradiction in the first place. Traditional search for beauty is the search for completeness, balance and wholeness. However, the contemporary theories on aesthetics, particularly in architecture and urban design, insists on the dynamism of perception which is based among other principles, on aspects of ambiguity, ambivalence, actually on effects of transformation and the sense of perceivers aesthetic participation. These aspects are tools of creative thinking, and usually they can be defined in a different way than in traditional theories. That is the reason why the aesthetics of transformation exists preferably as an urban concept, referring on the sensation of constant dynamic changes of the build environment.