Date of Award

2023

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy (School of Philosophy and Theology)

Schools and Centres

Philosophy and Theology

First Supervisor

Renée Köhler-Ryan

Second Supervisor

Dejan Simkovic

Abstract

This thesis argues that cities can only become better attuned to the complex human need for identity, meaning, understanding, and self-expression when urban decision-makers better understand the nature and significance of aesthetic engagement. When we strive toward aesthetic goals in building and city planning, we then nurture, more fully, essential human activities and needs. This thesis argues that the aesthetic of the urban environment profoundly influences the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours of those who dwell there and is therefore inseparable from culture, everyday life, and the cultivation of human fulfilment. By doing so, this thesis reconceptualises architecture, the urban environment, and as artistic objects and spaces, and pedestrian life as the activity of aesthetic engagement through visual and non-visual sensory experience.

To achieve this, the thesis engages with the aesthetic architectural and urban visions of two thinkers situated at opposite ends of the political spectrum: Roger Scruton, a British Conservative philosopher, and Constant Nieuwenhuys, a Dutch artist-turned-architect and founding member of the Situationist International. Scruton advocates for legally enshrining beauty in urban planning policies, underscoring its interdependence with ideas such as tradition, nationhood, family, ritual, and religion and their shared roles in fostering richer and more meaningful urban settlements. Nieuwenhuys, on the other hand, envisions New Babylon, a global post-revolutionary pedestrian architecture rooted in notions of play, ambience, and disorientation. In his nomadic world, fully automated production replaces human labour and traditional societal constructs are abolished to produce a totally unified city of meaning.

Both thinkers contend that the only way to create meaningful cities that meet the biological, physiological, and existential needs of diverse individuals and communities is by prioritising intrinsic values and human qualities – such as beauty, play, imagination, and emotion – over instrumental values. This thesis highlights the significance of aesthetic perception and aesthetically engaging public spaces beyond utilitarian or instrumental considerations.

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