The Role of Urban Aesthetics on Enhancing Vitality of Urban
Spaces. (2021 Hourakshsh Ahmed Nia
The paper is built around a previous extended survey on literature regarding aesthetics design theories and their impact on urban environment (Nia and Atun, 2016). The author argues that urban aesthetic creates urban identity (a dynamic characteristic of space) and consequently increases the levels of vitality and leisure time activity in the specific area. Regarding urban aesthetics, theories focused on the ‘aestheticization’ of urban spaces as attempts to increase the quality of the urban environment were formulated since the second half of the 19th century (i.e. City Beautiful Movement or City planning according to artistic principles). The author claims that the ‘beautiful city’ concept is defined as not only associated to architectural style, design or detail, infrastructure, or pollution, but linked to the social interaction of its people and the quality of these interaction, in other words with vitality. Ever since Jane Jacobs announced the potential death of great American cities in the 1960s the theories surrounding the urban environment changed and the vitality of a city, a qualitative concept, started to be defined in terms of desirability and community. The author concludes that the concept of vitality from the urban point of view represents “the sum of a visual aesthetic superiority of the environment along with the diversity of public activity it supports” (p.72).
Ioana Mădălina Moldovan
Universitatea Tehnică din Cluj-Napoca
Nia, Hourakhsh Ahmad. “The Role of Urban Aesthetics on Enhancing Vitality of Urban Spaces.” Khulna University Studies 18, no. 2 (2021): 59-77.