Appearance, of course, plays a significant role in urban design: including green spaces, using interesting and varied materials and design features to generate emotions in users is par for the course. But attaining ‘beauty’ itself is rarely on the agenda and it doesn't deserve to be: shouldn’t the de facto position be that we automatically aspire to beautiful office buildings and environments, with those that deliver on practical requirements but little else, being the exception, rather than the norm?

After all, being surrounded by beauty is proven to bring tangible benefits. When academics at the University of South Carolina conducted research into the levels of happiness among 5,000 residents of New York City, London, Paris, Toronto and Berlin, they concluded that happiness is not simply a function of factors such as health, wealth and social relations, but is most easily achieved if you live in an aesthetically beautiful city. Being continually surrounded by beautiful and inspiring architecture and spaces, the researchers found, has a cumulative positive effect on mood and well-being.

Beauty can also be a way for designers to distinguish their projects. When faced with a selection of office buildings which all deliver in terms of function, the one that aspires to wonder and awe is more likely to be chosen, and stand the test of time, than the one which is uniform and fails to aim any higher than pure functionality.

The question of course remains: what is beauty? There is no collective definition: every individual has their own views. Brutalist buildings are considered beautiful by some, while others describe traditional Georgian architecture as the epitome of beauty. Given how opinions tend to change, particularly over time, it’s probably unwise to label any one form of architecture beautiful and another ugly.

As Ron Arad, the designer and sculptor, says, 'It is all about culture, context, personal history, acquired taste and, most importantly, ideas. When an architectural problem is solved by an idea, that idea is always there to be seen in the building – the idea has a visual manifestation that is beautiful.'

Perhaps if we follow this mantra the end result will get as close as possible to fulfilling the majority of people's definition of beauty?  

Function may continue to take precedence over beauty for the immediate future, but beauty is part of that function and is being recognised as increasingly important. Similar to sustainability and wellness in the built environment, beauty is likely to soon to get to the point where it is almost impossible to ignore. 

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