ABSTRACT
The design of a small fishing vessel for the coastal waters of Indonesia is a straight forward technical challenge, however some initiatives to introduce newly designed vessels with more advanced technology have been unsuccessful. The observation that the appearance of rejected craft contrasts markedly with the traditional vessels operating in the area has led to the consideration of the importance of aesthetics in engineering design that is reported in this paper. Definitions of beauty, their relevance to engineering design, and alternative approaches to decisions regarding form and style are discussed, with examples taken from the marine domain. A proposal to make explicit the place of aesthetics in one theoretical model of the design process is followed by a description of the design of a fishing vessel for eastern Java, this being an example of cross-cultural design in practice, where aesthetics was given a prominent role.
