BEAUTY

Beauty, Venustas, together with Utilitas and Firmitas, are the three principles whose fulfillment Vitruvius demanded from Architecture. One reaches beauty in architecture in the wake of rigorous, profound work that can and must be considered a true work of research. Beauty is something profound, precise, and concrete that rocks the very foundations of human civilization, which makes time stand still, and ensures that the created work remains durable in time and in the memory of man. The chapter also illustrates some buildings that in the history of architecture have clearly materialized the ineffable beauty. Few buildings in history have the quality of making us lose the notion of time like the Pantheon in Rome. The Barcelona Pavilion is not only a synthesis of the principal conceptual achievements of modern architecture, but, in addition, a prodigy of beauty.