1．Ecological civilization is the trend of social development

1．Ecological civilization is the trend of social development

Our environment is faced with the challenge that never been seen before. “The survival of man—and of every living thing on this planet—is threatened. When man participates in the destruction of the world around him, he unwittingly helps to bring about his own destruction."1)Industrial civilization prompted advancement of the society, while practically is destroying the natural environment. The nature responded to the plunder and fought back.2)

Environmental crisis must be dealt with before human being can advance further. And the only way is to build our society to be more environment-friendly, or more ecological. Technical fix-ups are not enough for the environment problem, and we should liberate ourselves from the technology trap. While the current model of social development, which depends on consuming natural resources, must be changed, the direction of design esthetics also should be modified from being based on human needs or pure esthetics, to make the harmony between human being and the nature. And industrial civilization will evolve to an ecological one.

Sustainable development has already become the theme of the time. In 1987, UN Environment and Development Committee defined "That the time has come for a marriage of economy and ecology, in order to ensure the growth of human progress through development without bankrupting the resources of future generations."3) Sustainable development means the smoothly operating social system, including efficient use of the resources, recycle, simul- taneous development of material and spirit civilization, and the harmony between human being and the nature.

2．The perception of esthetic value in China must be changed to support the building of ecological civilization society

In fact, concepts such as “Harmony between man and nature" had already been emphasized in ancient Chinese philosophy. But nowadays, in China, economic advancement made by massive industrialization has ruled the thoughts and behaviors of Chinese. Desire and authority pursuing destroyed the value of society, culture, and that of aesthetics. Decision makers and designers became thoughtless by focusing narrowly on surface phenomenon, the luxury decorations and spectacular sceneries, blindly imitating the so called Western modernization achievements. Essential reason behind is the twisted or misplaced perception of aesthetic value, which definitely will get in the way of constructing ecological civilization in China.

According to US philosopher Thoreau, ecological civilization calls for enlightenment, aesthetic sensibility, and a spirit experience which guides us to know the ultimacy of life and the holy ubiquity, barely the consumption of luxuries.4) In modern society, aesthetics already developed beyond the beauty that only philosopher can appreciate, as described by Plato and increasingly becomes vital to the social development and the daily life.5) On the contrary, domestic researches on aesthetics mostly are theoretical and little usefulness to the design practices. Therefore, the research on the direction of the aesthetic design is indispensable and critical not only to the art design and practices, but also to the growth of Chinese society.

3．Trend of the modern aesthetic research

In the late 18th century, aesthetics became the philosophical name of beauty and well accepted by the world. While the thoughts on it can be traced back to Socrates (BC 469-399) era, who said that people can find aesthetic value in the nature. As to Plato’s (BC 427-347) definition, beauty is the pleasure apperceived by seeing and hearing. Aristotle (BC 384-322) defined three forms of beauty: order, symmetry, and definition.6) St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) defined three factors of beauty: completeness, proportion, and perspicuity.7) And Hegel pointed out the difference between the natural beauty and the art beauty in his aesthetics.8) Bernard Bosanquet(1848-1923) said that the History of Fine Art is the history of the actual aesthetic consciousness, as a concrete phenomenon; aesthetic theory is the philosophic analysis of this consciousness. The beautiful which lends itself to the development of modern out of ancient aesthetic by a natural progression from the abstract to the concrete.9)

Western aesthetics experienced the transformation from the tri-side structure defined by ancient aesthetic culture to the twin-side, which is defined by modern aesthetics. The tri-side includes the

philosophy of pursuing the metaphysical nature of beauty, i.e. the search for abstract beauty; aesthetic psychology that studies the principle aesthetic structure; and art philosophy that studies the beauty of art. Modern western aesthetics basically allied with the empirical methodology, brought by G. T. Fechner, that aesthetics should be studied through "bottom to top"method, not by the traditional speculative methodology which required "top to bottom". Then the theme of the aesthetic research should shift from the investigation on beauty’s metaphysical nature to the investigation on aesthetic experience or some specific subjects. It is not about to unite the three sides, but to destroy the most important side, the nature of beauty.

Modern aesthetics criticizes that ancient aesthetics aims at establishing some standard to be the best form or relation of the beauty. Fechner thought whereas in fact each of these has value only within certain limits, and there is no such thing as a normal line or shape of beauty. Hegel pointed out in his esthetics the characters and vitality of the natural environment except for the beauty of art.

Taoism, Buddhism, and Theodicy advocate harmony between people and the nature. School of Socrates, Thoreau, and Dewey hold that there is a close relation between the nature and human being. And the positivism, evolutionism, naturalism, and pragmatism, all these kinds of philosophical movement in the late 19th and through 20^th century, also hold the close relation between people and the nature. On wake of ecology today, the perception of beauty has shifted from the visual shapes to a broader region, the natural environment.

3.1 Rise of the environmental aesthetic consciousness

As entered in to 20th century, researches on ecological environment are booming, environmental chemistry and environmental physics, ecology, environmental philosophy, environmental ethics, environmental art and design emerged. In sixties, environmental aesthetics first arose in US and Europe, and then spread all over the world. Aesthetics expanded itself from the beauty of art to the beauty of environment, from humanism and scientism to ecology. And the aesthetic research shifted from being theoretical and cares more on individuals to practical issue in social life. Aesthetics became applied aesthetics. Scholars in US, Finland, GB, and Canada all looked into this field. Chen Wangheng, Chinese aesthetician, said, “Environmental aesthetics has become a famous school on aesthetic research, and will direct the practice of the people in finding out a harmonious way to promote both human being and environment development."10)

3.2 The meaning of environmental aesthetics

The core of environmental aesthetics is to performing aesthetic thinking on environment. The scope is not confined to environment which is outside the human body. Or it will lead to a host-guest situation. Also we can not let the human being simply absorbed into the nature, as animism supposed, paying little attention to the negative behaviors. Environmental aesthetics put the nature and the creativity and life of people together, supposing they are two sides of one issue, not a countering pair. Combination of people and the nature, as noted in the perception of Taoism, is the philosophy against the mind body dichotomy.

Environmental aesthetics watches the value of aesthetics. People preferred economic value than aesthetic one, which is the root problem that hindered the formation of the ecological civilization. Ignorance on the value of aesthetics and spirit experience fostered the excessive use of natural resources, some are not renewable. Value of aesthetics can be superior to that of the economy. And it adds aesthetic value to the normally utilitarian business projects.

The process of aesthetics is a comprehensive experience of color, texture, beam, distance, time and space, different from the definition on the perception system by Hegel or Santayana. Environmental aesthetics should surpass the hearing and vision of the beauty of art, giving full play to the ability to perceive the environment, which includes sensation, smell and taste. In environmental aesthetics: theory, research, and applications11), Nasar defined two fields of environmental aesthetics: empirical aesthetics and environmental psychology, suggesting the relation between physical stimulation and body reaction.

Aesthetic awareness has the character of space and time, so it is not only about presence, but a full spectrum of aesthetic perception and value evaluation on the so called “cultural organism". It considers not only the outside, for example shape of the building and site, but also any situation and feeling that people have in there, especially the results caused by individual cultural factors, such as religion, custom, memory, philosophical tradition, and social relationships. Also it considers the factors covered by cultural elements, which reflect the nature of the object, or the nature of beauty. That is the “Essence" in eyes of Heidegger, and the “Tao" of Taoism.

4．Ecological design guided by environmental aesthetics

Combination of economic and aesthetic value is the goal of environmental aesthetic research and application. Environmental aesthetics is applied and aesthetic value and principles should be applied to daily life consciously, be carried out in practices. Environment consists of buildings, sceneries, and cities, so does environmental aesthetics. The environment awareness should be combined on one hand with buildings and indoor decoration, and on the other hand with the city, commerce and industrial scenery.12) Post-modernism are the review of negative side of the industrial civilization, and the critique on mechanical modernization. Post- modernism design, the Disney Land as the symbol, its unrealized manifestation showed us the sens or environment produced by the region of time and high technologies, which only is a regressive Utopia. To break the prison of industrial civilization, the make of the environmental beauty should be based on the perception of the ecology system.

Ecological artist Patricia Johanson once said in a scenery design seminar in Harvard university, “we care more and more about the scenery that shows the true nature, not that based only on anthropocentrism and metaphysic view of aesthetics, because the latter never do us good."13) Before making a thorough investigation on the unique history and ecological environment of the site, she never makes a move to the design work. This is a responsible attitude. She suggests that we face the environment directly, admit the problems, and surpass the traditional culture, expand the ecological design to a broader geographical realm.

No matter what form of the design, we must realize that design is embodied in philosophical history, is the combination of aesthetic and spirit values, not just based on individual experience. This solves the contradiction between the beauty and the function. In the ecological time, the ultimate goal of design should be built on the benefits of the environment, the harmony between the environment and the people living in. This is the direction of an ecological society.