Landscapes, Urban Architecture and Nature between Beauty and Relation

Abstract

This paper explores the philosophical resurgence of landscape aesthetics in late 20th-century thought, reclaiming natural beauty from ecological and scientific discourses through key works by Paolo D’Angelo and Rosario Assunto. D’Angelo’s analyses in Estetica della natura, Filosofia del paesaggio, and Il paesaggio emphasize experiential dimensions – imaginative, emotional, and identificatory – bridging nature and artifice while addressing postmodern shifts beyond modernity’s artificial dominance. This paper critiques contemporary architecture’s failures amid urban sprawl, invoking Simmel’s metropolitan pathologies, La Cecla’s call for sociability, and Romano’s theory of urban beauty rooted in European collective themes. Transitioning to the megalopolis, the discussion contrasts ancient pólis closure with Roman civitas openness, advocating relational, polyvalent designs that restore discontinuity, belonging, and ethical-aesthetic regeneration. Ultimately, beauty emerges as salvific, harmonizing ecology, history, and human survival in inhabitable urban landscapes.