Aestheticizing the beautiful city
Democratic politics and design review
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11668258 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Günter Gassner (0000-0002-5891-6228, Cardiff University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1098-1116 |
| Publication date | 2021-02-12 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0272-3638 • E-ISSN: 1938-2847 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02723638.2021.1874742 |
| OpenAlex | W3129316715 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 20 |
This article explores design debates through a radical political lens. Examining ways in which architects, urban historians and townscape consultants view speculative office developments and profit-driven building height in the City of London, I argue for the democratization of the cityscape. I contest the prevalence of the consensual city-image in which towers are framed as structures that visual enhance historic landmarks and buildings of 'civic importance' in order to emphasize the importance of critically engaging with consensual pro-market governing processes and the role of tradition therein. Distinguishing between radical aestheticization and conservative beautification, I show how the Royal Fine Art Commission cultivated the latter and prepared the ground for today’s city-image. I suggest that design review can contribute to democratic urbanization processes if a radical conceptualization of aesthetics is being developed
Aesthetics · Art · Beautification · Cityscape · Civil engineering · Conceptualization · CONTEST · Democracy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Visual arts · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Law · Public Spaces through Art · Visual Culture and Art Theory
On Beauty
Recognition theory, political agency and intersubjective institutions
Creative disruption or the trivialisation of townscapes? The meanings and acceptance of Irish modern high-rise buildings
A monument to whom? Artist positionality in community art-based projects
Drawing as an Ethico-political Practice
The Politics of Aesthetics
The Priority of Injustice
Marketizing the governance of design
The Priority of Injustice
Aesthetics, Politics, and Attunement
Recovering the politics of the city
The post-political trap? Reflections on politics, agency and the city
Taking account of the ‘part of those that have no part’
Unlocking the mind-trap
The politics of design
Architecture, Economic Imaginaries and Urban Politics
The Antinomies of the Postpolitical City
Theorizing the Politicizing City
Post-democracy, politics and philosophy
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |