Government
What Makes a City Beautiful?
A provocative new video featuring Alain de Botton says beauty in urban settings must be objective—and to argue otherwise is a danger to our quality of life.
Most of us would probably be content to say that beauty is subjective. There may be a measure of symmetry or scale in what makes a person, object, or landscape attractive, but ultimately, beauty's not inherent to the thing. It's in the eye of the beholder.
But in the case of cities, beauty is objective, argues Alain de Botton in a provocative new video—and saying that it's not is a danger to the quality of urban life.