Aesthetic dimension can be considered as one part of city s quality, which is important in managing our cities towards more stimulating and pleasing living environments. Human experience of the environment is a combination of sensory phenomena and imagination, which includes knowledge, memories, hopes, fears, dreams etc. Aesthetical questions involve preferences and judgements, which are subjectively meaningful and socially constructed. Aesthetic value of the lived city can be found out through the views of the inhabitants. I have studied visual landscapes, soundscapes, and smellscapes and their aesthetic quality in the city of Turku.
Empirical material consists of the interviews.
I found out that nature has an important role to produce aesthetic quality in suburban areas. Anne Virtanen, Department of Geography, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland. This article studies the changes in the role of the local environment in Finnish school education. From the beginning of the 20th century until the 60's, the strong attachment to one s home region was seen as a basis of national identity. Therefore it was thought that school education should start with the student s home region.