Ugliness and Judgment - by Timothy Hyde (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A novel interpretation of architecture, ugliness, and the social consequences of aesthetic judgment

When buildings are deemed ugly, what are the consequences? In Ugliness and Judgment, Timothy Hyde considers the role of aesthetic judgment--and its concern for ugliness--in architectural debates and their resulting social effects across three centuries of British architectural history. From eighteenth-century ideas about Stonehenge to Prince Charles's opinions about the National Gallery, Hyde uncovers a new story of aesthetic judgment, where arguments about architectural ugliness do not pertain solely to buildings or assessments of style, but intrude into other spheres of civil society.

Hyde explores how accidental and willful conditions of ugliness--including the gothic revival Houses of Parliament, the brutalist concrete of the South Bank, and the historicist novelty of Number One Poultry--have been debated in parliamentary committees, courtrooms, and public inquiries. He recounts how architects such as Christopher Wren, John Soane, James Stirling, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe have been summoned by tribunals of aesthetic judgment. With his novel scrutiny of lawsuits for libel, changing paradigms of nuisance law, and conventions of monarchical privilege, he shows how aesthetic judgments have become entangled in wider assessments of art, science, religion, political economy, and the state.

Moving beyond superficialities of taste in order to see how architectural improprieties enable architecture to participate in social transformations, Ugliness and Judgment sheds new light on the role of aesthetic measurement in our world.

Review Quotes

"A fascinating book. In taking as a point of departure the limitations of aesthetics, Hyde invites readers to understand the assessment of aesthetic failure as a wedge that pries open conversations about inadequate, unresolved, or unsatisfying social and legal arrangements. Ugliness, in his telling, points to gaps in social, regulatory, urban, and institutional fabrics. The author implies that the value of listening to complaints about buildings lies in discerning the issues that encounters with 'ugly' buildings bring to the fore."---Kathryn O'Rourke, Rice Design Alliance

"As Hyde eloquently demonstrates in a compelling trajectory that arcs from Stonehenge to modern London, ugliness is more than a physical trait or quality assigned to an object. It has acted as a site and catalyst for debate on broader social circumstances."---Catherine Slessor, The Guardian

"Discussions such as those effectively summarised in Ugliness and Judgement are so instructive when we evaluate how to apply concepts of beauty and ugliness in architectural debates."---Alexander Adams, Salisbury Review

"Hyde's book confronts ugliness head on, using it as a way to interrogate British architectural discourse. . . . [His] research on the individual case studies is impeccable."---Richard J. Williams, Times Higher Education

"The great achievement of this book is to show that, even if the language and opinions about taste change, debates about architecture have always had some common features. They are never just about buildings."---William Whyte, Church Times

"This book is a welcome break from good taste. . . . If you have ever wondered why a certain building seems ugly, this book will help you understand why you feel that way."---Lucy Watson, Financial Times

"To call out ugliness, then, is a call to arms. While beauty basks lazily and uselessly in its own perfection, ugliness spurs us into action."---Igor Toronyi-Lalic, The Spectator

About the Author

Timothy Hyde is associate professor in the history and theory of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Constitutional Modernism: Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933-1959. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Twitter @hyde_timothy