5 comments about The Architecture of Happiness.

1. Alain de Botton's Architecture of Happiness is a humanist's guide to understanding built environments. Finding room to appreciate both classical and contemporary architecture, de Botton resolves the quarrel between the ancients and the moderns by suggesting that every architecture strives to provide the conditions for happiness. "What works of design and architecture talk to us about is the kind of life that would most appropriately unfold within and around them. They tell us of certain moods that they seek to encourage and sustain in their inhabitants." (72)
   
   Although the book is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness, its best moments are shot through with midlife melancholy. De Botton reflects on the ache inspired by an eighteenth-century ornament: "The ceiling is a repository of the qualities the man would like to have more of in himself: it manages to be both playful and serious, subtle and clear, formal and unpretentious ... it has a profound unsentimental sweetness, like that of a smile breaking across a child's face" (148-9).
   
   The book itself is founded on the double premise that our surroundings affect our moods and modes of living, yet "will only ever constitute a small, and imperfect protest against the state of things" (25). De Botton, that is, believes deeply, very deeply, that architecture matters, but he does not suffer from the self-importance of the professional architect. Phew.
   
   What excites me most about de Botton's work, however, is his ability to weave design, literature, and philosophy into a mode of discourse that speaks with an eye to illumination, not obscurity. The writing is too beautiful to be reduced to a set of "take-aways," the emerging tin standard for public speech, yet de Botton uses page breaks and illustrations to escape the mesmerizing movement of his own syntax. Could this be ... the typography of happiness?



2. The author opens with a marvelous question, "If architecture is important, then how can we ever be unhappy in a home with good architecture." It is a truly breathtaking question to ask. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the answer.
   
   Happily, the author does offer great compensations for his failure to resolve his key question. He provides a well-rounded and insightful look at how we interact psychologically with architecture. I didn't agree with every observation he made, but I found all of them interesting, provocative, and worthy of my time. It is a book that I will read again and which has more to teach me. Especially when I'm not looking for an answer that isn't there.



3. I bought this book for my son who just declared his major in college to be architecture. He has been reading it for a few days and when I asked him if he liked it he said it was pretty good and that is good enough for me.



4. I have given copies to a Zen priest and an award winning architect thinking they would both be exhilerated if not inspired. The Architecture of Happiness lends insights and provocation enough to raise new questions, new slants on how one practices...whatever field you are in.



5. The Architecture of Happiness, written by Alain de Botton, outlines the historical evolution of architecture over the past century and the reciprocal effects that architectural surroundings may have on one's mood and overall outlook in life. The author offers an in-depth exploration of the cultural, political, and social influences which have been important in shaping the evolution of architectural design.
   
   The book begins with a discussion about the relative historical and political factors that have influenced the appearance of architectural design. He also offers an in-depth look at how the details of one's surroundings can subtly influence one's feelings about the environment and the self. In choosing or designing one's environment, he philosophizes that one chooses a reflection of his or her ideal self, or internal world.
   
   The psychological interpretations made by the author are mostly subjective and philosophically based, without any empirical research being used to support his opinions. Some of the reasoning that the author uses to support the importance of architectural details seems fundamentally flawed. For example, he uses the importance of one millimeter's difference in the human lip to explain how important architectural detail is to a building. However, the human ability to recognize slight differences in human faces is a survival mechanism that enables us to differentiate each of the billions of faces that exist in the world, and it is not likely that this capability generalizes to building architecture.
   
   The writing style and lexicon in this book make for an informative read, but may be difficult to absorb by those looking for entertainment. Readers with professional careers in architecture, art history, or philosophy, may find that this book opens the door to creative thought about the connection between one's environment and psychological factors.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: Book most important to someone in the architectural field.

No comments about The Power of Ideas: Five People Who Changed the Urban Landscape.

No comments about Urban Design: Green Dimensions, Second Edition.

No comments about Dimensions of Sustainability.

No comments about Preserving And Enhancing Communities: A Guide for Citizens, Planners, And Policymakers.

1 comments about Scaling Urban Environmental Challenges: From Local to Global and Back.

1. The unique contribution of this book is its methodology in analyzing urbanization and global change as part of one system, but consisting of different scales/levels. While numerous books have concentrated on globalization and its impacts on the sustainable city, this one emphasizes interdisciplinarity and makes the technical understandable to everyone regardless of academic background .
   
   Edited by 2 world known experts, the Director of the Human Settlements Program of the International Institute of Environment and Development in London and a Research Fellow of the United Nations University in Japan, this book is a seminal work utilizing systems theory in analyzing relationships between drivers of global change, actors, and responses at various levels and their respective feedbacks. The title says it : ``From local to global AND BACK''. The chapters, written by various professors and experts, deal with environmental challenges and guide the reader through the entire system. The 2 editors are also the lead authors of the chapter on Urban Sytems of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. Hence, you must read this book if your attention was caught by their urban systems chapter in the MA.
   
   The book discusses details and concrete cases in developing countries mentioned in ``Urban Sytems'' and offers fresh findings. Their diagram alone on integrated assessment of Urban Systems, which includes Actors, Responses, Upstream Drivers and Downstream Impacts, is a valuable contribution to academics, systems analysts, and reseachers who want to understand the dynamics of global change at every scale and as a whole. It is helpful as well to those engaged in Strategic Environmental Assessments, but whose backgrounds are confined to one discipline. This book will help you.
   
   It is indispensable to scholarly understanding of systems dynamics in this age of global environmental change without having to use the much used and abused ``ecosystems approach'' alone nor having to study at MIT to understand causal loops, stocks and flows, which Professor Forster was talking about but not knowing how to apply it to the real world which needs concrete policy solutions. This book makes it understandable to everyone without having to go through the technical jargon.
   
   Having come from multiple backgrounds myself, I am grateful that a book FINALLY and correctly shows the methodology of how interdisciplinarity is valuable in understanding sustainable development. I particularly appreciate the incorporation of ecosystem impacts at one level, economic impacts at another level, and health and community impacts at another level. There is no one level of impacts in working for sustainable development. At last ! This book got it right.
   
   It does not omit the concept of ecosystems at a specific scale when discussing social impacts. Perhaps other authors omit it because they cant explain it. It reminds the reader that the goal of sustainable development is not only the sustainable city, but a sustainable world.
   
   Very thorough research all over. Truly a gathering of experts. Highly impressed with the correct synthesis of approaches towards the sustainable development goal.

No comments about Biopolis: Patrick Geddes and the City of Life.

No comments about Place Identity, Participation and Planning (Rtpi Library Series).

No comments about Moore Ruble Yudell Building in Berlin (Images Monographs).

No comments about Gender, Class, and Shelter: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, V (Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture).