ARCHITECTURE AS A MIRROR OF THE ERA AND A FACTOR IN SHAPING THE AESTHETIC SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF GENERATIONS: FROM ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS TO NEW UZBEKISTAN

Abstract

This article examines architecture as a product of the historical development of society and, at the same time, as an active factor in shaping an individual’s artistic and aesthetic consciousness. Drawing on the source materials, the evolution of architectural thought is systematized from the earliest civilizations, Antiquity and the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, the Industrial Age, Modernism, Postmodernism, and twenty-first-century architecture. It is demonstrated that the worldview, religious beliefs, social organization, scientific knowledge, technologies, and aesthetic ideals of each generation determined the scale, composition, structure, and image of buildings, while the built environment, in turn, consolidated values, patterns of behavior, and collective memory. Particular attention is paid to Central Asia and the territory of present-day Uzbekistan: ancient settlements, Islamic architecture, the heritage of the Samanids, Karakhanids, and Timurids, the development of Tashkent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and contemporary practices combining national tradition with innovation. The significance of the heritage of great ancestors, science, craftsmanship, and architectural culture for educating the new generation of Uzbekistan is substantiated. Contemporary environmental and behavioral studies confirm associations between lighting, scale, natural elements, acoustics, spatial organization, and emotional well-being, attention, and social interaction. The article concludes that architectural heritage should be regarded as an educational and formative resource, while contemporary architecture should serve as a means of preserving cultural identity under conditions of globalization.