Aesthetics and the Art of Engineering

Engineering involvement with aesthetics is vital for the creation of innovative and successful products in today’s fast changing world. This paper discusses the nature of this involvement historically and in the present, and goes further to argue that aesthetics plays a central role in the creative process itself. Thus, if engineers are involved in the creation of products, or if they wish to become more creative, it is important that they be sensitive to the aesthetic implications of their work and also to their personal aesthetic capabilities. This paper will also examine a few of the reasons why the importance of aesthetics may be  difficult for the engineering profession to acknowledge  primarily based on A survey into textbooks used in educating mechanical engineers and engineering designers with the aim to identify and finally  a possible paradigmatic change in the engineers approach to aesthetics is presented and discussed.