ABSTRACT
Buildings are a natural, even paradigmatic, case for discussion of everyday aesthetics. They are artifacts of everyday use, they are present in the public environment, and aesthetics seems to matter considerably to their creation. The idea of unreflective aesthetic response as being a defining element of architecture perhaps originates with certain passing remarks made by Walter Benjamin early in the 20th century: Buildings are received in two ways: by use and by perception. The everyday user or passerby has as much potential to have an aesthetic response to the building as the contemplative, attentive spectator does; the difference is rather in the object of the aesthetic response. In addition, there are the purely aesthetic tasks—noting whether proportions, sizes, and compositions look right, making discriminations, and judging appropriateness. The aesthetic responses are snap judgments; they are action oriented, in that they lead to choices about further scrutiny.
