Mundane beauty in art and architecture

Abstract

In the twentieth century a specific kind of beauty emerged from art: the increased value of the mundane. Contemporary art shows that common situations have an aesthetic significance. But architecture does not pay any attention to this scope. What is more, it tries to deny it. Nor the design process nor the architectural photography show the presence of mundane things. Fortunately, we have some works to go in depth into this day-to-day issue. Let's analyze the photograph Morning Cleaning, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona, (JeffWall, 1999), the intervention Phantom, Mies as Rendered Society (Andrés Jaque, 2012) and the film Koolhaas Houselife (Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, 2008). By considering the visual and spatial value of these cases, we reconsider them as an experimental space. What if architecture starts looking at its surroundings?.