Readers Respond: What makes a building beautiful?

Responses: 43

By Jackie Craven, About.com Guide

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"Light, God's eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building."
_{~Thomas Fuller, 17th century historian and author of The Worthies of England.}

"The first principle of architectural beauty is that the essential lines of a construction be determined by a perfect appropriateness to its use."
_{~Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower}

Now, it's your turn. What qualities do you think makes a building beautiful? Graceful lines? Simple form? Functionality? Tell us!

The Beauty. When the designer brings originality in architecture, its innocence and individuality flows through. Not to be missed!
—Guest Riddhi Shah

A coherent space is a predominant factor that gives a building an aesthetic value...inner beauty "functionality" has a direct impact; physically, mentally & emotionally on its users.
—hayzed2010

Simple design, good ventilation, and comfortable living, color, pattern ,beautiful exterior view with a balcony, garden, simple gate with safety.
—Guest neelam

I believe the beauty is when the ornaments are stripped out. I go for simple things.
—Koketso Mosarwa

Architecture is 3 dimensional. The beauty in Architecture is in the created (3 dimensional interior and exterior) space. See more on http://www.architecture-as-space.info/ and http://www.architecture-as-space.info/Reflectionsonartandbeauty.html
—name_exists

The blending of the building with its environment makes it beautiful...this has a lot to do with colour, message, and orientation of a building.
—Guest luyinda

What makes a building beautiful? Balance, proportion, appropriate embellishments, congruity with its environment and evidence of human skill.
—Guest Alan Leibensperger

...WHEN ENTERING OR VIEWING A BUILDING I feel great. HAGIA SOFIA MAKES ME ECSTATIC, I am knocked out by 12th and 13th century French gothic cathedrals, seeing the Taj is breathtaking. Wright's home in Oak Park is very exciting, the light and color in Legoretta's are wonderful, St. Mark's Square in Venice is unforgettable, Palladio and Aalto's buildings are exciting. These are just a few examples.
—haiminc

What makes a building beautiful to me, is when that building melts in, is in harmony with its surroundings; next, of course, is when a building gives out a sense of impressiveness.
—Guest carole lamarque

The designer's perception about the profession's aesthetic value makes a building beautiful.
—Guest Arch. A. T. Atsenuwa

Well I think it's the functionality that maters most in any building. The more functional, more it will ease the users and it's our utmost job to ease our clients so...
—Guest hira

A house is beautiful when to look at it brings joy, when to sit in it brings pleasure, and when one knows that one has designed and built it in partnership with a loved one.
—Guest Marvinlee

Houses are the physical structures; homes are our response to the quality of where we live. Ancient buildings are monuments to the gods, to rulers' egos, to defense of cities. They are hardly reflective of the hovels of the ordinary people. We are fortunate today to be able to provide houses for a large part of our society. But the "beauty" is dictated by the subdivision developers. The home is what the individual family does to enhance the house and make it beautiful in their estimation.
—Guest Dennis B.

It has been said that "beauty lies in the eye of the beholder." I live in Boston, MA, so that's a tough call for me because most of the largest structures are made of stone. What does it for me is how the building invites me in without knowing who I am.
—bobstein54

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Jackie Craven
Architecture Guide