ABSTRACT
Functionalistic aesthetics are holistic theories on beauty and therefore especially appreciated in those areas of art that aim at the so-called unity of art and life or of beauty and everyday life. These are applied arts, such as design and architecture, with their obligation toward the utility of their products, like the modern avantgardes, due to their anti-aesthetic and anti-academic principles but also aesthetic traditionalists who believe that the beauty of an object is created through the process of optimizing its use over the course of generations. In the artistic expression of the protagonists of these “movements,” the principles of functionalistic aesthetics are applied through aesthetic ideas and patterns, which create something like a genuine style: aesthetic functionalism (Eisel 2007). Based on the underlying aesthetic ideas and the political conception of the “greater good,” this style is divided into at least two variations: mechanistic and organicistic functionalism. In both styles, beauty is understood as a quality of objects that stimulates the senses and produces pleasure. This is not merely a relation of cause and effect, but also a means to an end. Beauty’s function is to point to the qualities of objects that are beneficial to the well-being of humans as well as to the whole world. The concept of the world as an
1.1 Differentiation of Green Functionalism in the United States ...........................5 1.2 Differentiation of Green Functionalism in Germany ..................................... 14 1.3 Green Infrastructure versus Landscape .......................................................... 19 1.4 Characteristics of Green Infrastructure ..........................................................20 1.5 Characteristics of Landscape-Based Design Concepts .................................. 21 1.6 A Third Voice .................................................................................................23 1.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................25 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................26 References ................................................................................................................26
entity of interdependent parts-constructed as a clockwork or grown as organismdetermines the specific aesthetic functionalism and what is understood as aesthetic qualities.*
