Abstract

This study contains basic concepts which form the background of issues related to the built environment and aesthetic experience that are experienced by humans in the phenomenological and socio-cultural point of view. Aesthetics is related to the identification and comprehension of factors giving contributions to perception of an object or a process considered beautiful or giving pleasant experience. Aesthetics is also related to the comprehension of human’s ability to create or enjoy the arrangement which is pleasant and created aesthetically.

The comprehension of the relation among humans, aesthetic experience, and the built environment is actually rooted in the comprehension of cultural aspect. How humans and their culture influence perception and aesthetic experience towards the built environment and how the built environment influences perception and human’s aesthetic experience in certain cultural context are the main approaches serving as the basis for all premises revealed by the writer.

Interrelation among the three aspects is described by using examples from Bagas Godang Mandailing as a built environment and aesthetic experience that is experienced by Mandailing’s people in their environment. The most important aspect in this expalanation is the culture that influences human’s aesthetic experience. As a part of a sub system of behaviour in psychology, environment must be viewed as an important aspect in planning an architectural environment and environment is no longer regarded as physical shapes only.