Do aesthetics need to be a conscious decision while designing a house?


Aesthetics is an inevitable part of any good creation. When you look around, you will find the integrities of each and every creation, aesthetically crafted by nature. So aesthetics cannot be neglected in a decision making process of any good design. For a well informed designer, aesthetics is more or less a very intuitive solution. Its always a difficult question on what is a good aesthetic solution of a house. There are several factors which contribute to a good residential design like the response to clients requirements, lifestyle and culture with respect to the site  and its context. When you sensitively look at these factors the process of design itself will guide you to unique solutions often inspired and informed by a certain set of variables. Aesthetics thus formed is a natural derivative of such a process. What makes each solution different is the difference in the set of variables, both internal and external.
External variable in a design process are the political background of the project, the background of the designer, the prevailing art and culture movement and a collective knowledge and material resources at the particular time. All these variables will change the way a designer conceive the internal variables like clients requirements, site and context. If the designer neglects these set of external and internal variables, but focus only on his aspirations, to develop a particular style of architecture, then aesthetics will have to be a very conscious decision and often fail to connect to the context. Once the designer appreciates the existence of the variables and extend the process to be as inclusive as possible, solution becomes a negotiation and overall aesthetics will be a natural outcome. Detail design elements though are mostly a concious add on to create opportunities for experimentation leading to uniqueness in each project.


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