The article discusses the poetic dimension of the built environment and aesthetic experience. Based on Arnold Berleant’s concept of engagement and the ideas about the continuity between man and his environment as well as man’s role as the experiencing and imagining focus point of his environment, the essay studies the aesthetic importance of environment to man and its purpose in man’s perception of his environment. The phenomenological viewpoint on art and environment emphasizes phenomenality and experientality: like other art forms, architecture and urban space are means of collective and subjective experiencing. The aesthetic experience is here seen to comprise the levels of the body, senses and memory as well as the associations and anticipations of imagination. In Heidegger’s philosophy the essence of all art is poetry. All art - including architecture and urban design - speaks in images, communicating meanings inexpressible in logical, rational concepts. Based on archetypal experiences, images form the subconscious figurative language. These images are an essential part of making and experiencing art and environment.

Mikko Mannberg

Excerpt from the article on the pages 22-29, ark 4/2000