Kant's Triad of Pleasure, Beauty, and Utility in Architecture

Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi explores Kant's aesthetic concepts—the pleasant, the beautiful, and the good—within the context of modern architectural critique. He posits that beauty represents a subjective judgment that holds universal significance, setting it apart from the personal pleasant and the objective good. Kant's distinction between free beauty and adherent beauty sheds light on the conflicts between pure form and functional assessments in architecture. Puglisi observes evolving preferences, referencing the waning popularity of postmodern structures such as Michael Graves' Portland Building and Robert Venturi's Vanna Venturi House. He introduces the notion of the sublime and addresses architecture's dual aspects: sensory empathy and intellectual discourse, which necessitate theoretical understanding. Puglisi concludes that contemporary preferences may lean towards the 'good' rather than hedonism, while the concept of beauty remains intricate.