Techno-aesthetics in architectural discourses: A state of the art review

Abstract

Since the beginning of the First Industrial Revolution, technology and its impact on art and design have been a topic of discussion. With the rise of digital technologies, there has been a renewed interest in exploring the relationship between technology and aesthetics. The aim of this paper is to clarify the concept of techno-aesthetics and make it a more accessible field of study by identifying its key discourses. In order to understand how technological objects have been evaluated in architectural history, a systematic review of 177 studies was conducted. The collected literature was analyzed using Kant’s characteristics of aesthetic judgment, discourse analysis techniques from Foucault’s methodology and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. This helped in creating a framework for classifying the literature. The study analyzed results based on five categories: admired technological objects and architectural objects inspired by them, concepts (function, truth, freedom, objectivity, unity, and power), standpoints (rationalism, romanticism, optimism, and determinism), and benchmarks of legitimation (ideology, history, scientific nature, everyday aesthetics, and sublimation of technology). These results were then combined to identify eleven significant discourses of techno-aesthetics.

Key words： Techno-aesthetics; Architectural technologies; Order of discourse; Discourse theory; Aesthetic judgement