Abstract
A framework for the aesthetic education of landscape designers is offered in the context of ecological imperatives, ineffectual contemporary artistic strategies, and the neglect of ‘form’ and material practice in teaching institutions. The reinstatement of form—treated as landscape trajectories acknowledging process—and craft, along with a philosophy of utility and modesty in art: “the aesthetics of thrift,” are together presented as a pertinent approach to education. Four currently popular approaches to aesthetics are examined and their limitations highlighted. The case for an emphasis on form-oriented, practical and empirical studies is made, along with the notion that the teaching of formal abstraction is also necessary. The aim of a ‘thrift’ approach in design education is to secure a close relationship between ethics and aesthetics by making central the judgment of utility of form—including the utility of art and of ecology—and by proposing humility as the basis of designer’s resourceful making.
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