Possibility of aesthetic evaluation of architectural works based on Nelson Goodman's view, case study of "The Naderi Museum" and "The Great Museum of Khorasan"

Aesthetic evaluation of architecture based on rational-logical methods is necessary. Nelson Goodman's aesthetic theory uses this method to read architectural works aesthetically but does not claim to evaluate works. According to the potential for this in his views, this question arises: "How can architectural works be evaluated based on Goodman's theory of aesthetics?" In short, for Goodman, what makes a building an architectural work having an aesthetic value is meaningfulness through references. He proposes that the three basic types of referring in architecture are "denotation", "exemplification", and "expression". Thus, the architectural work can be meaningful in these three ways or through a chain of referring. These three basic types of referring are Goodman's theoretical basis for reading architectural works. In the present study, based on Goodman's theory, we seek to explain a model that makes possible the aesthetic evaluation of architectural works. To achieve this goal, three main steps were done: First, we explained Goodman's theoretical foundations and aesthetic theory. In the second step, based on the mentioned principles, we read the "Naderi Museum" and the "Great Museum of Khorasan". Finally, the four categories of "number", "diversity", "quality", and "accuracy" were inferred from Goodman's theoretical foundations as criteria for aesthetic evaluation. Therefore, in testing our claim, we analyzed the readings based on these four criteria. The research conducted due to test the proposed model shows that why the Naderi Museum has more aesthetic richness than the Khorasan Museum.