Ideological assumptions in aesthetic judgment of architecture

Abstract

The aim of this paper is consideration of presence of ideological factor in aesthetic judgment of architecture. The focus is on the aesthetic theories in which ideology is the key component that can produce aesthetic meaning on the basis of which aesthetic evaluation can be performed. With regard to this, the paper provides an insight into the relevant aesthetic approaches, which, by subject matter and methodology, can be determined as ideologically oriented. The theoretical frame established allows implementation of an interpretive and comparative analysis of two texts that through aesthetic judgment discuss Belgrade architecture, immediately before and after World War II. Through recognition of an ideological context in these two texts, this paper will point out how different aesthetic evaluations of certain morphological aspects of architecture (such as folklorism, ornamentalism, eclecticism, classicism, monumentalism and purism) do not come from inherently architectural, i.e. stylisticformalist aspects, but how they result from ideological connotations attributed to them in a wide variety of ways. In this sense, this paper finds ideological background in established criteria of aesthetic judgment such as authenticity, homogeneity and contemporaneity.