Sustainability, Beauty, and Power in Architecture

The essay deals with the relationship among (total) power, beauty, and sustainability, which is considered an integral part of architecture and town planning for the future. Although beauty (architecture) is closely related to the good that stimulates our desires, it is often distorted by the construct of power. Sustainability, beauty, and power are all relative, multifaceted, and challenging also in the field of constructions. Ever since the times of primordial human communities and civilisations, beauty and power have been consciously or accidentally connected, and this also applies to their connection to architecture. It is the bearer of both of these nouns. It demonstrates power, warns against it, pleases human senses through beauty and mutual proportional relationships, protects people, but it can also be a symbol of destruction, resistance. At the same time, it is a practical tool and means of expression capable of carrying a certain message, information. The paper delves into deep philosophical contemplations of the three main topics and shows their complicated ties, based on the insights of the most important world and local savants of all times, speaking different languages, and offering different cultural perspectives on the issue. History is confronted with the present and implications the future are presented.