The Architecture of Happiness

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?

Alain is a great writer and this is a must read for anyone who has ever questioned " Do architects really care " Erudite / Wonderful / Superb. I use several books to explain GOOD system design to clients ( Don Normans The Design of Everyday Things, called the coffee pot book ) ( Alan Coopers The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity - the jail book ) and now this classic. Good design leads to happiness. De Botton makes a great case and his history checks on this theory are very good I especially liked the instance with Le Corbusier's first major client screaming at him that her house is leaking like a sieve and her son in in hospital as a result, with pneumonia, and he responds " But MADAM the design was so well received in the architectural press " I nearly fell of my seat laughing. Thank you Alain for a great contribution to man and his understanding of how things SHOULD work. I have now ordered ALL of his other works

Like Tom Wolfe before him (see "From Bauhaus to Our House"), De Botton has produced one of the finest books of architectural theory and criticism by a non-architect. By that I don't mean that "he did all right for an amateur and a dilletante;" rather I mean that De Botton has written one of the best books of architectural criticism in recent memory, period. The fact that he is not an architect or critic only enhances this book's appeal, because it is written in plain language, with lovely illustrative phrases that allow the reader to inhabit his prose in the imagination. This is not "Architecture for Dummies," by any means, but De Botton's argument is accessible and understandable to architects and non-architects alike. This book is richly illustrated to bring home the salient points, and De Botton seems to have traveled enough to speak with authority about the places he writes of. This charming volume should be read and studied by every architect, would-be architect, architecture student, client, and design review board on the planet. Humanity would be well served if it became a standard text.

This is a very interesting way to approach architecture, mainly related to human emotions an psychological needs. It is not a technical description nor an expert analysis. Is a fresh and touching window to consider some aspects you will not find in most books on architecture. It is a pity that the images does not look OK in the Kindle edition. You need color and precision to understand and enjoy. (Of course no mention of prehispanic architecture in America, which is not ok). Anyway, very enjoyable and valuable. Very De Botton. And that is something to thank.

Alain sees our appreciation of buildings as a window into our values and ideals of the world. Do you want a simplified and calm existence outside of the rush of the world? Do you want kindness and relationships in a high competitive world and thus a warm reminder through softness and roughness to your personal spaces. This book made me think about how I can used art in my spaces to remind and direct me towards things I value and seek when sometimes the world seems quite contrary. A great read to consider how we see beauty and encourage ourselves to follow our goals and values each day.

The book enthralled, and excited me like never before. At almost every page I was made to reminisce and appreciate so many emotions and thoughts that I often took for granted. A beautiful read and thoroughly enjoyable and relatable!

Adorei o livro, muito interessante ver o ponto apresentado pelo autor sobre como os ambientes projetados podem afetar psicologicamente seus habitantes/frequentadores.

i'm still reading it, but enjoying it a lot, it's philosophy about te themes related to architecture, very interesting indeed

The title obviously alludes to a previous book by the charismatic author entitled 'The Consolations of Philosophy'. But I aspire that this review is a little more than word play, resonance and allusion. One is impressed with the literacy, sophistication, refinement and discriminating taste of the author. He moves with ease in time, Geography and discipline to collate the arguments in support of his points and pronounces virtually in every paragraph profound truths and thoughts with disarming simplicity. The book is lavishly graced with elegant black and white photographs exquisitely illustrating the points made by the author in the text; in fact these photographs along with their accompanying footnotes comprise an excellent summary of the book. But the book itself is difficult to summarize because there are simply so many original, beautiful, elegant, subtle and refined thoughts and ideas about buildings and Architecture. One can only aspire to give a flavour of the content of the book by providing fragments of information. The author introduces the book in a philosophical mood. In a walk on a brilliant summer day in a pastoral landscape the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke reflect on the trancience of beauty. In another point the author suggests that we are more appreciative of beauty when in sad mood while he reminds us of the cruel truth of the powerless of beautiful buildings to change the evil side of human nature. The author discusses the evolution of the concept of beauty in Architecture. There was certainty in what comprises beauty in Architecture which with intermission lasted for a thousand years. It developed in classical Greece exemplified by the columnated temples with their friezes and pediments and harmonic proportions, evolved in Rome and revived in Rainessance. Then tastes changed and the gothic and mixtures of styles were introduced in houses. In the modern era beauty was ostensibly abandoned altogether and the new credo was function. Buildings and constructions should be functional not beautiful. But this was more of an illusion rather than fact. Modern Architecture was beautiful and gave a promise for the future. We often describe a building as beautiful when it evokes aspects of happiness. As Stendahl aptly wrote 'Beauty is the promise of happiness'. But he wisely refrained from specifying any particular type of beauty but instead commented that there are as many styles of beauty as there are visions of happiness. Buildings we call beautiful often contain in a concentrated form those qualities in which we are deficient. In this regard we feel sacred architecture exemplified in Gothic cathedrals is beautiful because it is uplifting our souls. We like order in buildings but only when it is combined with complexity. We like an adequately contextual building which we might define as one which embodies some of the most desirable values and the highest ambitions of its era and place-a building which serves as a repository for a workable ideal. Finally our views on beauty and aesthetics are often moulded by culture. An extreme example is exemplified by the perceptions of beauty respectively in Western Europe and Japan in Architecture, artefacts and man made landscape.