Talking Architecture: The beauty thing

Architecture may be the most public of all the arts, yet is the least publicly discussed. Talking Architecture is a series of public conversations about some of architecture's key questions: Is beauty necessary? What is architecture for? Involving architects, artists, clients and lovers of architecture, Talking Architecture will open a public dialogue about how people can and should shape their shared built world.

Architecture is a profession focused on aesthetics, yet no aspect of architecture is less discussed. Beauty was once a staple of philosophical discourse, considered central to scholarship but also to the good life and to happiness. Is it still? Or is there a general acceptance of the popular assumption that beauty is strictly subjective and personal? Or is there a general acceptance of the popular assumption that beauty is strictly subjective and personal? And does the public still have the mental furniture for such a conversation? If not, can the vocabulary of beauty be relearned?

Moderated by Elizabeth Farrelly, the Talking Architecture series has been curated by Sonia Blasco Lázaro and Ed Lippmann, with the support of Porcelanosa and Vitrocsa.