The perception of artistic values within civil engineering. A survey from the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract Starting from the hypothesis that, currently, the potential aesthetic and formal values of engineering are not recognized by society, the main objective of this work was to deepen understanding of the perception of engineering work in Spain and Portugal. For this purpose, a structured survey was developed, and the collected data were subjected to descriptive statistics and non-parametric assessment to evaluate differences among groups. A total of 586 participants were considered in this study, of which 80% had difficulties in recognizing contemporary art, 60% continued to associate it with beauty and 75% acknowledged that they do not understand art or are indifferent to it. The age, education, and urban context of the respondents were factors that influenced levels of knowledge and acceptance of civil engineering work as art, with a clear positioning of architecture as the standard-bearer of its aesthetics. When addressing surveyed interpretation of images, frequency of visits to cultural venues favours the perception of contemporary works of art, while most selected civil works were designed by engineers, which shows that aesthetics and design don’t have to be assigned to other professionals. The vast majority of the participants agree with the notion that engineering enables trust, while about a third of the participants disagree with the idea that art dominates science in engineering work. Finally, there is a broad perception among participants that engineering works can be elevated to a new form of art.