On beauty

“Beauty,” a term that almost defies definition, can be highly emotive in its use: more emotive, we posit, than many other commonplace terms used to frame thinking about the future of space and place. Thus, the relationship between beauty, decision making and the city has a complex history. This complexity invites critical engagement and, therefore, we are surprised that the subject of beauty receives relatively sparse coverage in planning literature. Is this perhaps because much of planning is focused on what is perceived, or defined, as objective, and accepted as part of the planning framework, even where value judgements are actually involved? What interests us, therefore, is what role does, and should, an emotive term like beauty have in shaping contemporary practice, and with what effect? Contributions from both practice and academia presented in this Interface respond to these questions, and in so doing proffer important contributions on how ideas of beauty are impacting planning theory, practice and decision making. This matters because, as we begin to expose in this introduction, the innate challenge of beauty is that its promulgation can have both oppressive and emancipatory intent