Inhabiting Beauty

Juan Navarro Baldeweg and the Salvation of a Binding Beauty

Abstract

The contemporary revival of the debate on beauty in architecture compels us to reconsider its ethical, political, and phenomenological dimensions. In contrast to a visual culture dominated by digital immediacy, the aestheticization of consumption, and the algorithmic production of images, the work of Juan Navarro Baldeweg offers a conception of beauty grounded in sensory experience, corporeality, and the relationship with natural forces. This article proposes a cross-reading between Navarro Baldeweg’s “artistic zodiac” and Byung-Chul Han’s reflections in The Salvation of Beauty, with the aim of examining how architecture may still constitute a space of truth, contemplation, and shared experience. Drawing on the four “rings” formulated by Baldeweg —gravity, light, body, and processes— the article argues that beauty is neither a superficial effect nor a stylistic question, but rather a binding experience that transforms the relationship between subject, space, and world.