Free PDF The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain De Botton
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The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain De Botton
Free PDF The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain De Botton
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One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings and streets that surround us.
And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. The Architecture of Happiness starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can be, and it argues that it is architecture’s task to stand as an eloquent reminder of our full potential.
Whereas many architects are wary of openly discussing the word beauty, this book has at its center the large and naïve question: What is a beautiful building? It is a tour through the philosophy and psychology of architecture that aims to change the way we think about our homes, our streets and ourselves.
- Sales Rank: #554379 in Books
- Published on: 2006-10-03
- Released on: 2006-10-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.34" h x .87" w x 6.37" l, 1.37 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 288 pages
From Publishers Weekly
With this entertaining and stimulating book, de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life) examines the ways architecture speaks to us, evoking associations that, if we are alive to them, can put us in touch with our true selves and influence how we conduct our lives. Because of this, he contends, it's the architect's task to design buildings that contribute to happiness by embodying ennobling values. While he makes no claim to be able to define true beauty in architecture, he suggests some of the virtues a building should have (illustrated by pictures on almost every spread): order combined with complexity; balance between contrasting elements; elegance that appears effortless; a coherent relationship among the parts; and self-knowledge, which entails an understanding of human psychology, something that architects all too often overlook. To underscore his argument, de Botton includes many apt examples of buildings that either incorporate or ignore these qualities, discussing them in ways that make obvious their virtues or failings. The strength of his book is that it encourages us to open our eyes and really look at the buildings in which we live and work. A three-part series of the same title will air on PBS this fall. (Oct. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Alain De Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Art of Travel, and Status Anxiety, among other books, takes a humanistic approach in Architecture of Happiness and explores the ways in which our built environment affects us. He occasionally overindulges in florid prose, but critics agree that his more general observations of architecture are sound and interesting, if not entirely novel. The average reader will find much of interest in the broad range of eras, places, and styles that de Botton discusses. Well-placed photographs illustrate each point in the text. The book is so visual, in fact, that the BBC is making a three-part television series based on it, to air on PBS this fall.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
Review
"De Botton is a lively guide, and his eclectic choices of buildings and locations evince his conclusion, that “we should be as unintimidated by architectural mediocrity as we are by unjust laws.”
—The New Yorker
The next time I'm at a party, and the conversation turns to "serious topics," like what the stock market did today, I think I'll suggest we talk about something more important: architecture. I'll ask the investment banker why he bought the house he did and insist he answer the question. And then I'll start quoting Alain de Botton.
—The National Post
If this book were a building, it would be a contemporary reading room, I think, with big windows, and clean, built-in bookshelves with a fold-out step ladder just right for fetching slim volumes from the top shelf. The elegant clarity and brisk humour of his style, accompanied by pages of photos, opens your eyes to the rich possibility of thinking about your home, and your city, in a new way.
—The Toronto Star
"De Botton's books are the literary equivalent of the Slow Food movement. They demand to be lingered over, not because the concepts are difficult but because they are rich and deep. Be prepared to put down your book frequently and turn his last few sentences over in your mind, testing his theses against the rooms and buildings you know well."
—The Globe and Mail
"In this simple, entertaining and brilliant book, Alain de Botton explores how architecture speaks to us and why it affects all aspects of human life. His great strength is to explain things we always knew but never understood."
—Christopher Hume, Architecture Critic, Toronto Star
“How did we ever manage without de Botton?”
— Sunday Times (U.K.)
“[de Botton] deals with questions of style, ideas of beauty, notions about why certain structures appeal to us. The author argues that we love beautiful buildings because they solidify ideas we have about ourselves and our world. They put into concrete form our aspirations; they compensate for our human weaknesses; in short, they make us happy. Virtually every page contains a sentence any essayist would be proud to have written. A lyrical and generously illustrated monograph about the intimate relationship between our buildings and ourselves.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Singlehandedly, de Botton has taken philosophy back to its simplest and most important purpose: helping us live our lives.”
— Independent
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A Superb Read
By KY Hylbilly
After buying and reading this book, I did something I've never done before: ordered a copy sent to a lifelong friend who, like me, is not an architect, but has an appreciation and abiding interest in topics and writings that are so well developed and imaginative as to take the topic to a new or higher level. I told my friend that this little book is worth reading in itself on at least three separate levels of interest and enjoyment: 1) the marriage of function and beauty revealed in good architecture, 2) the soaring, imaginative range of vocabulary the author uses to make his thesis, and finally, 3) the exquisite humor he inserts, when least expected, to lighten (and enlighten). In short, this is a wonderful little book to send your spirits soaring, get a frequent laugh, and even discover new meaning and beauty in the man-made structures around us.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Refreshing take on beauty in architecture
By Tim Williams
This book approaches architecture from outside the field and begins to answer questions that architects have recently forgotten to ask. (What is beauty in architecture? What is style and in which should one build?)
Required reading for architects and anyone considering buying or constructing a building.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
More Manner That Matter
By Anne Mills
This book asks a question that has interested me for a long time -- what makes some buildings beautiful? Unfortunately, the author does not provide much in the way of answers. He does discuss some interesting ideas, notably the fact that ideas of beauty in architecture change over time. But he passes over this to go on to more timeless issues -- balance, elegance, etc. It all sounds very nice -- Mr. De Botton's prose in unfailingly elegant, sometimes irritatingly so. It just doesn't add up to much.
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