NEB Compass self-assessment – Step 1/6 – Values

Values – beautiful

Beautiful

What makes your service, product or project beautiful?

The Value Beautiful in the NEB Compass goes beyond personal preferences, setting the creative process at the centre of what makes the service, product or project beautiful.

A beautiful project emerges when its authors invest collective sensitivity, intelligence and competences into creating a positive and enriching experience for people – beyond functionality.

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To Activate

Context re-activation • Sensory experience • Aesthetics

A project at ambition level I enhances well-being by considering people’s senses and emotions, activating cultural and natural qualities for positive experiences. It fosters awareness of a place’s diversity and heritage while embracing its own unique aesthetic.

Example
How should architecture respond to a landscape with enormous aesthetic vigour that is fiercely beautiful? The caves of Caño de Hierro (Spain) were buried under ruins and undergrowth for decades. The project in Caño de Hierro is part of an operation that aims to recover the heritage of Hornachuelos for its neighbours and to point out the enormous natural, historical and architectural richness of the town. A pedestrian promenade is proposed. The natural reed formwork used reproduces the irregularity of the caves, and the colour harmonises with that of the rocks.
Possible guiding questions
  • Does the project consider the comfort of its users (e.g. in terms of materials, light, air and noise)? How does it integrate it?
  • Does the project consider sensory perceptions (visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory) and emotional sensibility? What experience does it offer?
  • Does the project reflect regional/local particularities and call upon local materials and skills? How?
  • Does the project make its own aesthetic choices (e.g. in terms of composition, colours, balance or material compatibility)? How?
 

To Connect

Connection across contexts • Collective experience • Sense of belonging

A project at ambition level II enhances meaningful social interactions and collective experiences, reinforcing a sense of belonging and enriching lives by connecting diverse places and people. The project fosters new attachments that promote openness and mutual care.

Example
The Multisensory Museum (Netherlands) is a project at the interface of research and architecture. The project socially innovated architectural processes by developing a co-design method that engaged people with disabilities and architects together in a creative endeavour. The result is an enticing space that draws the museum visitor in through all the senses (sound, touch, smell, vision and motion), giving an architectural expression to inclusion and dialogue and providing a new way of experiencing a museum visit.
Possible guiding questions
  • Does the project provide attractive and comfortable spaces that bring people together in diverse settings? How?
  • Does the project give a sense of community to people with different backgrounds and perspectives? How does it strengthen this sense of community?
  • Does the project give opportunities to learn about new ideas, places, or people? How?
  • Is the project interactive? Does it offer opportunities for encounters or discoveries? How can participants interact with the project?
 

To Integrate

Enabling creation • Restructuring of values • Long-lasting movement

A project at ambition level III allows for the creation and collective re-invention of places, lifestyles, and communities, fostering a sense of identity. It integrates new cultural and social values, including a meaningful connection to the broader ‘us,’ encompassing the non-human world. By doing this, the project aims to anticipate future transformations and has the potential to spark a lasting movement.

Example
Baubotanik (Germany) is an innovative form of sustainable architecture that partially replaces technical building materials with living, growing trees. Baubotanik structures continue to develop throughout their lifetimes. They co-evolve with nature and overcome the dichotomy between the built and living environments. Here, care and maintenance are understood as a creative, collaborative process shaping future development. This interplay of human action and plant growth strengthens the sense of community and celebrates the aesthetics – the sights, smells, sounds and feel – of nature.
Possible guiding questions
  • Can participants question and reimagine their way of life through the project? How can they do so?
  • Does the project generate new fulfilling habits? What are these habits, and how do they emerge?
  • Is there a reflection on the future needs of the project’s users? How could the project approach this long-term thinking?
  • Does the project have a positive transformative effect on the participants’ lives? How does it change lives?