Opinion Piece from PLANETIZEN

Does Beauty Still Matter?

Dealing with contemporary planning agencies has become a very stressful task for any person with concerns for their immediate and future urban environments.

Most of these agencies have a long list of requirements that they themselves sometimes pay attention. We live in age whereby mountains of research and endless reports has been published on the need to address climate change within urban environments.

There has been very slow movements by planning authorities to incorporate serious climate change requirements into their legislative requirements. This debate is ongoing to have these agencies address these vital matters.

However one matter that really upsets residents is that most of the new developments are badly designed and not aesthetically pleasing. When this issue is put to planning agencies, most would say that they cannot legislate for aesthetics.

This is something I totally disagree on with these bureaucrats.

Beauty is something we all appreciate and when we are surrounded by landscape and buildings that are engaging and aesthetically pleasing, all manner of good things happen. The biggest thing is the uplift people feel which in turn contributes to the health and well-being of residents. It really is not that hard!

A writer has raised this question online – click here.

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Paul Costigan, 16 June 2014