ABSTRACT
The visual character of the urban environment derives from the combination of its spatial (volumetric) and its visual qualities, the artefacts in those spaces and the relationships between them all. Architecture and urban design is certainly among the very few inescapable – and thus public – art forms. Aesthetic appreciation of the urban environment is primarily visual and kinaesthetic. Aesthetic appreciation also has a significant personal component. This raises issues of individual taste, but because taste also has socially and culturally learnt components, such preferences go beyond simple expressions of personal likes and dislikes. If aesthetic concerns are to lose their characterisation as being of specialist or elite interest, then there is need for built environment professionals – beyond architects – to be confident when talking about such factors. Pure situations are rare, and in most environments several principles come into play simultaneously, though one principle may often be dominant.
