THE AESTHETICS OF INEQUALITY

Abstract

This article discusses how aesthetics can reflect the condition not only physical of the place, but also provide a rebound in its modes of appropriation, in terms of recognition and belonging. The aesthetics of the built spaces end up reproducing the socioeconomic inequalities of its users. The guidelines for interventions should prioritize not only improvements in the physical aspect, in terms of beautification, but also act in order to mitigate the discrepancies in the landscapes, inserting the informal city in the urban context and, consequently, the people who are part of that space. The street, understood as an extension of housing, should favor interpersonal contact and its improvement, even if it does not have a primary purpose for aesthetics, it has the minimum apparatus to produce conditions of vitality. It is curious to see how, even in the informal city, there is a pattern of self-construction that in a non-normative way directs the production of landscape aesthetics. In this sense, the results lead to the proof that the aesthetics that counteract inequality and can be mitigated by urban interventions, in order to make the city more harmonious and egalitarian, is not just a matter of surfaces.