Aesthetic sustainability : product design and sustainable usage / Kristine H. Harper.

"Earthscan from Routledge"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The concept of durability -- Structure and overview -- 1. The pleasure of the familiar: The beautiful -- Adhering to universal aesthetic principles. The need for structure and balance ; The pure expression ; The universal effect of color -- The easily decobable -- Homeliness. The experience of minimal inertia -- Conclusion -- 2. The pleasure of the unfamiliar: The sublime. Order-chaos-order ; Sublime terror ; Positive and negative pleasure -- The stages of sublime -- Breaking with universal aesthetic principles -- Prolonged decoding -- Conclusion -- 3. The expression of flexible aesthetics: Fleeting beauty. The nature of beauty ; Zeitgeist analysis -- Aesthetic decay; slow aesthetics ; When an object assumes its character ; Wabi-sabi aesthetics -- Sustainable thingness -- 4. Designing the temporal object: The time of becoming -- The time of existence -- The time of being -- 5. The magical thing: The concept of aura -- The re-enchantment of familiar objects. Turning things upside down ; Tactile spirituality -- The lover's thing -- Designing magical things -- 6. The value of aesthetic sustainability: Communicating sustainable aesthetic value. What is valuable? -- From CSR to DSR. A specific example of DSR -- Aesthetic nourishment. The difference between aesthetic sustainability and emotional durability -- 7. Aesthetic strategy: Generalization and aestheticization -- The durable expression -- The contradistinctions of aesthetic strategy -- Instant payoff versus instant presence. Instant payoff: accommodating tactile expectations ; Instant presence: challenging sensuous assumptions -- Comfort booster versus breaking the comfort zone. Comfort booster: padding the recipient's comfort zone ; Breaking the comfort zone: designing unpredictability -- Pattern booster versus pattern breaker. Pattern booster: nursing the creature of habit ; Pattern breaker: waking the creature of habit -- Blending in versus standing out. Blending in: wrapping the self in comfortable camouflage ; Standing out: basking in attention -- Concluding the work on aesthetic strategy -- Design analysis with a focus on the value of sustainable aesthetics.

"Why do we readily dispose of some things, whereas we keep and maintain others for years, despite their obvious wear and tear? Can a greater understanding of aesthetic value lead to a more strategic and sustainable approach to product design? 'Aesthetic Sustainability: Product Design and Sustainable Usage' offers guidelines for ways to reduce, rethink, and reform consumption. Its focus on aesthetics adds a new dimension to the creation, as well as the consumption, of sustainable products. The chapters offer innovative ways of working with expressional durability in the design process.0'Aesthetic Sustainability: Product Design' and Sustainable Usage is related to emotional durability in the sense that the focus is on the psychological and sensuous bond between subject and object. But the subject-object connection is based on more than emotions: aesthetically sustainable objects continuously add nourishment to human life. This book explores the difference between sentimental value and aesthetic value, and it offers suggestions for operational approaches that can be implemented in the design process to increase aesthetic sustainability. This book also offers a thorough presentation of aesthetics, focusing on the correlation between the philosophical approach to the aesthetic experience and the durable design experience." -- Back cover