The Architecture of Happiness

The Architecture of Happiness

by Alainde Botton (Author)

Synopsis

John Ruskin proposed that every good building must do two things: it must shelter us, but it must also speak to us. In this beautiful book, Alain de Botton poses the following question: what do we want our buildings to talk about? Tackling the questions of architecture and interior design at a new and deserved level of philosophical depth, The Architecture of Happiness takes us on a riveting journey through Western and Eastern aesthetics. The issues surrounding the decoration of our own homes touch on major questions at the heart of the philosophy of art - what is beautiful? Are beauty and goodness related? Can beauty bring happiness?

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 280
Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd
Published: 20 Apr 2006

ISBN 10: 0241142490
ISBN 13: 9780241142493

Media Reviews
How did we ever manage without de Botton?
-- Sunday Times (U.K.)
Congenial, refreshing, original, and mercifully succinct, de Botton may well achieve the impossible by making philosophy popular.
-- Kirkus Reviews
Singlehandedly, de Botton has taken philosophy back to its simplest and most important purpose: helping us live our lives.
-- Independent
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
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 solidifyideas 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
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 deBotton?
-- 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
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 neverunderstood.
-- 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

From the Hardcover edition.

Author Bio
Alain de Botton is the author of Essays in Love, The Romantic Movement, Kiss and Tell, How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel, Status Anxiety, The Architecture of Happiness, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, A Week at the Airport, Religion for Atheists, The News: A User's Manual, and latest novel The Course of Love, among many others. Alain is a bestselling author in 30 countries. He lives in London, where he runs The School of Life and Living Architecture.