How Has a City Become an Aesthetic Issue

How Has a City Become an Aesthetic IssueAbstractA city is a huge artificial work，and is the result of thehuman transformation of nature and society.It also has amulti-layered feature different from the general artifacts.It ispractical，aesthetic and symbolic.On the one hand，becauseit is essentially an artificial work，it is still the object of thepower of human nature，and has the basic feature of beingshaped in accordance with the law of aesthetics On the otherhand，because of its multi-layered nature，city aesthetics isnot only a landscape aesthetics，but also should reflect thebeauty in practices and symbols.Key words：City aesthetics；Practical；Landscape；SymbolZhang，Y.（2015）.How Has a City Become an AestheticIssue.Canadian Social Science，11（4），-0.Available from：http：/ 1986 Arnold Berleant published the article CultivateThe Aesthetics of A City，as an object of aesthetics，city hasofficially entered the theoretical horizon of aesthetics，and hasbecome an important object of study.“City aesthetics”hasbecame a branch of aesthetics.This paper tries to explore thedevelopmental path of city aesthetics from the essence of cityand the multi-layered attribute of city.1.THE ESSENCE OF CITIESThe origin of cities is quite early.Only for China，thehistory of its urban civilization can be traced back to the pristinesettlements in the mid-Neolithic period 6，000 years ago.Untilthe late Neolithic period，in Yangshao，Hongshan，Hemuduand other cultural districts new settlements with classdifferentiation have emerged，which showed the nature ofearly cities.For the initial impetus of the formation of cities，there area variety of speculations.Kevin Lynch in City Forms says：With the development of civilization，the role of a cityincreases a lot more than the original.It has warehouses，bunkers，workshops，markets and palaces，but no matterhow it develops，a city is firstly a religious shrine，such as Acropolis is the holy land of worship and guardAthena.Mumford examined the process of civilization in theNile and Mesopotamia，and considered its the royalinstitution to promote the emergence of cities.“The kingoccupies a central position.He is the pole of the city magnet，and attracts all emerging forces into the heart of the citycivilization，and put them under the control of palaces andtemples.”（Mumford，2005）However，no matterwhats the reason，from the perspective of the emergenceand developmental history of a city，a city is the product ofhuman productive labors and social practices，and is a greathuman creation.Firstly，a city is the achievement of the humantransformation of the natural environment.Urban environmentis a“human”nature，and is an artificial environmenttransformed by the human creative activities.Artificialenvironment or a combination of artificial environment andnatural environment is the difference between city and ruralarea or wilderness.In this way，everything in a city is not anexistence of“pure nature”，but a part which cannot beseparated from human social lives.Therefore，an urbanenvironment，as Marx says，is the“personified nature”.A city is the object and carrier of human social lives.Building activities of a city are an important aspect of humansocial lives，and is the content and expression of human sociallives.Human constructive activities of a city is consciouscreative activities，which embody the human spirit pursuit inthe city construction，and are also integrated with humanemotions and ideals.A city，from simple to complex，fromsingle function to multi-functional，from small town to urbanagglomeration，city belt or network city，from a city on theground to a multi-dimensional city，shows different aspects ofhuman social lives.Broadly speaking，a city is a“container of civilization.”As a great artifact，a city spawns and contains a wealth ofmaterial and spiritual civilization in its own being.Whether it ispolitics，law，or culture，art，or business exchange，itcan get the most adequate growth and performance in cities.Ifthere are no cities，human culture is impossible to spread andgrowth so quickly.2.MULTI-LAYERED NATURE OF CITIESAlthough a city is essentially an artifact，and is a greatachievement of humanization of nature，its still differentfrom an artwork，and different from the general complexity ofan artifact.Firstly，a city has a practical property.It is a living space，and a citys function in the most fundamental level should besuitable for people to survive and to meet people s basic needs.The selection of a citys location must be considered with thenatural environmental factors，including climates，resources，transportation，securities and so on.The selection criteria，clearly，should be suitable and convenient for living.For a citys buildings，streets，communities，etc.，from a singlebuilding to the overall spatial layout，the primary objective isto settle people，and let people get a place to live.Meanwhile，we need to see that，if a city is a place of living，then a countryside or a family is also a place of living，butapparently a city as a place of living