It is more important for a building to serve a purpose than to look beautiful. Do you agree?
The balance between pragmatism and art on the field of architecture has been a subject of hot debates for centuries. I agree with those who say that a beauty of a building is essential as well as its ability to face practical requirements. However, some feel that the architecture is rather craft then art and people should not be addicted to the appearance of their houses. I will examine both sides and substantiate my opinion.
Regarding those, who do not consider design as kind of art, there are many reasons. The primary argument is that a building should be convenient and safe, hence there is no use, for instance, in balanced proportions of a city rail-station if its construction causes crowding and in order to get their trains passangers have to pass three stairways. Additionally, thet mention that the pursuit of beauty lead to going beyond the budget and term boundaries, which are hugely common in the construction business.
Nevertheless, I firmly believe that this point of view is poorly grounded. The whole idea of contradistinguishing the appearance and other qualities is pernicious and out-of-date. There is a famous school of design named Bauhaus which besides other prominent achievements, promoted an idea that beauty and pragmatism are not enemies in design, but different sides of one coin. The matter of the fact is that exterior of things which we use has great impact on our mood and eventually can significantly change the life. This is particularly correct for architecture, since buildings are so notable and change appearance of the whole city. The great example, how dramatically can city design change social life is given us by New York. Its parks was redesigned, became much more friendly, turned into places of meet and relaxation. These processes changed the nearest neighbourhoods and, eventually, the image of the whole city.
To sum up, my strong belief is that architecture should be practical and beautiful at once. Neglecting any of these components leads to creating cities where people would not like to live, which means negative social and economical consequences.