A triangular architectural relation model among sustainability, beauty, and power

Abstract

Sustainability, beauty, and power are notions that hit our contemporary perception every day. However, they have been an integral part of architecture and urban planning in various forms since the ages. The paper presents their fundamental descriptions, followed by an assessment of their mutual relations and impact on architecture through a triangular architectural relation model developed by the authors of the article. Using the theoretical thought experiment, it highlights eight boundary models along with their main characteristics, in particular, the implosion, explosion, shared-control, utilitarian, no-control, supremacy, inside-forced, and outside-forced architectural related models. Such models can help predict future events, explain past events, make decisions, and plan strategies, or reveal problems and propose new solutions. Other applications include determination of the causes of certain results or finding out the responsibility and mechanisms that led to them. The authors are of the opinion that the mutual denominator of sustainability, beauty, and power represents ethics that should be forced in architectural education and practice.

Keywords

Triangular architectural relation model / Sustainability / Beauty / Power / Thought experiment / Interpretation

References

[1] Aminuddin, A.S., Nawawi, M.K., 2013. Investigation of the philosophy practised in green and lean manufacturing management. Int. J. Cust. Relatsh. Mark. Manag. (IJCRMM) 4 (1), 1- 12.

[2] Arendt, H., 1999. The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

[3] Aristotle, 1999. Metaphysics. Green Lion Press, Santa Fe. Translated by Joe Sachs.

[4] Aurelius, M., 1964. Meditations: Thoughts to Myself. Penguin Books, London. Translated by Martin Hammond.

[5] Aquinas, T., 1947. Summa Theologica. Benziger Bros, New York. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province.=

[6] Bárta, M., et al., 2012. Kolaps a Regenerace: Cesty Civilizací a Kultur - Minulost, Současnost a Budoucnost Komplexních Společností. Academia, Prague. Academia (in Czech).

[7] Bandurin, A., et al., 2015. Social and philosophical analysis of power as a social phenomenon. Mediterr. J. Soc. Sci. 6 (4), 82- 86.

[8] Baumgarten, A.G., 1735. Meditationes Philosophicae de Nonnullis ad Poema Pertinentibus. Johann Heinrich Grunert, Halle.

[9] Bay, J.H., 2010. Towards a fourth ecology: social and environmental sustainability with architecture and urban design. Journal of Green Building 5 (4), 176- 197.

[10] Bell, C., 1914. Art. Chatto & Windus, London.

[11] Blatter, J., 2006. Glocalization. In: Bevir, M. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Governance. SAGE Publications, Inc., Berkeley, pp. 357- 359.

[12] Canetti, E., 1984. Crowds and Power. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

[13] Cicero, M.T., 1856. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London & Henry G. Bohn, York Street. Covent Garden, London.

[14] Clack, B.R., 2021. Freud and Psychoanalytic Aesthetics. Taylor & Francis. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

[15] Conte, E., 2016. Sustainability and built environment: the role of higher education in architecture and building engineering. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. 5 (3), 1- 10.

[16] Dessein, J., et al., 2015. Culture in, for and as Sustainable Development: Conclusions from the COST Action IS1007 Investigating Cultural Sustainability. University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

[17] Eco, U., 2010. History of Beauty. Rizzoli International Publications Inc., New York.

[18] European Commission (EC), 2013. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. An EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change. COM/2013/0216 Final.

[19] European Commission (EC), 2019. Communication from the Commission the European Green Deal. COM/2019/640 Final.

[20] European Parliament (EP), 2019. Climate and Environmental Emergency-2019/2930 (RSP).

[21] Fadaei, S., et al., 2015. Architecture: a missing piece in real-estate studies of sustainable houses. Procedia Eng. 118, 813- 818.

[22] Foucault, M., 1977. Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison. Pantheon Books, New York.

[23] Green, L., 1998. Power. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor & Francis.

[24] Harries, K., 1998. The Ethical Function of Architecture. MIT Press, New York.

[25] Hem, M., 2017. How to Be a Dictator: an Irreverent Guide. Arcade, New York.

[26] Hobbes, T., 2008. In: Gaskin, J.C.A. (Ed.), Leviathan. Oxford University Press, London.

[27] Hukmat, S., et al., 2020. The decorative orientations in the Mediterranean architecture and its influence on the development of cultural sustainability. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. 9 (1), 109- 125.

[28] Ishizu, T., Zeki, S., 2011. Toward A brain-based theory of beaut y. PLoS One 6 (7), e21852.

[29] Ishizu, T., Zeki, S., 2017. The experience of beauty derived from sorrow. Hum. Brain Mapp. 38 (8), 4185- 4200.

[30] Kaku, M., Thompson, J.T., 1995. Beyond Einstein: the Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe. Anchor, New York.

[31] Kant, I., 1987. Critique of Judgment. Hackett Publishing Company Inc., Indianapolis. Translated by Werner S. Pluhar.

[32] Kant, I., 1991. The Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Translated by Mary J. Gregor.

[33] Kawabata, H., Zeki, S., 2004. Neural correlates of beauty. J. Neurophysiol. 91 (4), 1699- 1705.

[34] Keppl, J., 2013. Ekologický algoritmus navrhovania. In: Špaček, R., Pifko, H. (Eds.), Rukovä$\check{\mathrm{t}}$ Udržate$\check{\mathrm{l}}$nej Architektúry. SKA, Bratislava, pp. 72- 79 (in Slovak).

[35] Labukt, I., 2012. Hedonic tone and the heterogeneity of pleasure. Utilitas 24 (2), 172- 199.

[36] Locke, J., Laslett, P., 1988. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

[37] Loits, A., et al., 2017. Triangulated medieval cities. In: Perinkova, M., Nedved, M. (Eds.), Architecture in Perspective 2017. Proceedings of the 9th Architecture in Perspective International Conference. VŠB - Technical University of Ostrava, Nov. 02-03, Ostrava, pp. 98- 103, 2017.

[38] Machiavelli, N., 1981. The Prince. Harmondsworth, Eng. Penguin Books, New York.

[39] Macroni, C., Steiner, D., 2015. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press, New York.

[40] Mallaband, P., 2002. Understanding kant’s distinction between free and dependent beauty. Phil. Q. 52 (206), 66- 81.

[41] Mann, M., 1986. The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

[42] Marcelli, M., 2008. Filozofi V Meste. Kalligram, Bratislava (in Slovak).

[43] Martinka, J., 2006. Od Aristotela po Plotina. Antológia Z Diel Filozofov. Iris, Bratislava (in Slovak).

[44] Marx, K., 1867. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Verlag von Otto Meisner, Hamburg.

[45] McDonough, W., Braungart, M., 2001. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. North Point Press, New York.

[46] Merleau-Ponty, M., 1945. Phénomènologie de la perception. Gallimard, Paris.

[47] Mihočková, E., 2017. Krása môže spasi$\check{\mathrm{t}}$ svet. Trends (50-51), 22- 24 (in Slovak).

[48] Muralikrishna, I.V., Manickam, V., 2017. Chapter five - life cycle assessment. In: Muralikrishna, I.V., Manickam, V. (Eds.), Environmental Management, Science and Engineering for Industry. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, pp. 57- 75.

[49] Plato, 2007. The Republic, second ed. Penguin Classics, London. Translated by Desomond Lee.

[50] Purvis, B., et al., 2019. Three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins. Sustain. Sci. 14, 681- 695.

[51] Rushdie, S., 2023. Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020. Random House, New York.

[52] Sachs, J., et al., 2021. Sustainable Development Report 2021. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

[53] Salman, A.S., et al., 2019. Effect of ethic discourse in the sustainability of architecture. IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 518, 022081

[54] Scarry, E., 2001. On Beauty and Being Just. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

[55] Sedláček, T., 2011. Economics of Good and Evil: the Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

[56] Seneca, L.A., 1928-1935. Moral Essays, Translated by. John W. Basore. W. Heinemann, London.

[57] Schmidt-Bleek, F., 2008. Factor 10: the future of stuff. Sustain. Sci. Pract. Pol. 4 (1), 1- 4.

[58] Speer, A., 1997. Inside the Third Reich. Simon & Schuster, New York.

[59] Steadman, S.R., 2015. Archaeology of Domestic Architecture and the Human Use of Space. Routledge, Oxford.

[60] Trigger, B.G., 2006. A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

[61] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2015. Paris Agreement. Phoenix Design Aid, Randers.

[62] United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.

[63] United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015. A/RES/70/1.

[64] van Pelt R.J., Westfall, C.W., 1991. Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism. Yale University Press, New Haven.

[65] Wackernagel, M., et al., 2019. Defying the footprint oracle: implications of country resource trends. Sustainability 11 (7), 2164

[66] Weber, M., 1964. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. The Free Press, a division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York. Translated by Talccot Parssons.

[67] Weizsäcker von, E.U., 1997. Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use - A Report to the Club of Rome. Routledge, London.

[68] Wolf, E., 1999. Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis. University of California Press, Oakland.

[69] Zeki, S., et al., 2014. The experience of mathematical beauty and its neural correlates. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8 (68), 1- 12.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2024 2024 The Author(s). Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.