Build beautiful,

build eternal

By promoting beauty in our built environment, we increase well-being and happiness

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About The Aesthetic City

The Aesthetic City is a content platform that promotes the importance of beauty in the built environment, the potential of traditional & classical design traditions in our modern world through social media, film, a podcast & blog posts.

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The Aesthetic City Blog

Blog

Summer school ‘Let’s Build a Beautiful City’

https://youtu.be/slSDemFVeUU Apply now! Apply at our summer school 'Let's Build a Beautiful City' in Utrecht…
Blog

A Prehistory of The Aesthetic City

Welcome! The aim of this series of blog posts - the ‘Foundation series’ - is…
Blog

A New Beginning & a Call for Beauty

Welcome, world. I am so very excited to start on this journey - and man,…
Blog
The Town That Did The Impossible: Le Plessis Robinson

The Four Principles of The Aesthetic City

The philosophy behind The Aesthetic City
Well-being of people

Architecture and urban design should be about the well-being of the final user. This means that ego, greed or detached utopian visions should not influence the design process and resulting built environments. This also means we need to create urban environments safe for walking and cycling, for playing children, with plenty of green spaces and attractive public amenities.

Beauty should be a goal

 Not only is beauty predictable and measurable, it is achievable by using tried and true design principles. It does not have to be expensive either. Beauty adds incredible value to peoples lives and is one of the key ingredients for a happy life. The Aesthetic City strives to restore the importance of beauty in planning processes and architectural education.

Strive for timeless designs & longevity

Design buildings and built environments using principles that have withstood the test of time instead of following currently fashionable trends. This prevents future need of major renovations or demolition, which saves money, precious resources and prevents pollution and the emission of greenhouse gasses. Build with strong materials that withstand the test of time.

Respect the context

Don’t build buildings that contrast sharply with their neighbours. Respect local inhabitants, traditions and history & adapt to local circumstances. Use local craftsmen and techniques. Make sure your design is warmly welcomed, even applauded by local stakeholders. Use local materials to lower the environmental impact of your project.

Other initiatives

Other great sources about beauty, New Urbanism, the traditional and classical architectural practice and more.

The Classic Planning Institute

Nir Haim Buras’ institute of Classic Planning promotes classic planning principles. His excellent book ‘The Art of Classic Planning’ is a must-have for every urban planner who wants to create an attractive, liveable city.

La Table Ronde d’Architecture

La Table Ronde d’Architecture (TRA) is a very active Belgian non-profit organisation dedicated to defending and teaching beautiful, humane and sustainable architecture and its associated crafts, fighting for the beauty and longevity of our built environment.

Create Streets

Create Streets exists to help solve the housing crisis & to help parties create & manage beautiful, sustainable places of gentle density

Street Level Australia

Street Level Australia is an association of local groups working to make Australian places more beautiful and conducive to human flourishing by advancing good urbanism, traditional architecture and quality building.

Casual Realism

George Kerpestein writes about topics ranging from politics and the economy to life’s big questions. The blog contains a series of excellent articles about traditional, classical & modernist architecture and the question of beauty.

Institute of Traditional Architecture

Joseph D. Jutras is a traditional architecture aficionado. He began the ITA website in 2014 in order to compile learnings and observations in one place, and to share them with others.

New Traditional Architecture

A site by Michael Diamant. It contains a regularly updated list of firms that either primary or partly work in classical, vernacular or organic tradition and a lot of other useful information

INTBAU

The International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism was founded by HRH Prince Charles and is an active network of individuals and institutions dedicated to the creation of humane and harmonious buildings and places which respect local traditions.

Why Beauty Matters

An excellent documentary by late Sir Roger Scruton about the vital importance of beauty to society

ArchitectuurOpstand

Dutch grassroots initiative to promote more beauty in the built environment and to battle against ugly modernist construction.

ICAA

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) is a nonprofit membership organization committed to promoting and preserving the practice, understanding, and appreciation of classical design.

The Prince’s Foundation

The foundation by HRH the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, which focuses on reintroducing beauty in the world of architecture and urbanism

Wrath of Gnon

Excellent Twitter account all about tradition; lessons on how tradition can improve our lives in many ways

The Aesthetic City on Twitter

Find us on Twitter with posts about beautiful cities, the value of beauty, problems with modernist planning & architecture, and more

BIMBY

Beauty-In-My-Back-Yard puts the power in your hands to influence new buildings in your area.

Driehaus Foundation

The Driehaus foundation by the late philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus works, among other things, to ensure that viable, healthy urban environments are designed to meet the needs of the humans who inhabit them.

Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission

The Commission was responsible for developing practical measures that will help ensure new housing developments meet the needs and expectations of communities, making them more likely to be welcomed, rather than resisted, by existing communities.

Frozen Music

An excellent blog by Mark Alan Hewitt, an architect, writer, teacher and preservationist.