Alain de Botton

Bestselling author Alain de Botton has written about love, travel, status and how philosophy can console us. Now he turns his attention to one of our most intense but often hidden love affairs: with our houses and their furnishings. He asks: What makes a house truly beautiful?Why are many new houses so ugly?Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures � and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved?Will minimalism make us happier than ornaments? To answer these questions and many more, de Botton looks at buildings across the world, from medieval wooden huts to modern skyscrapers; he examines sofas and cathedrals, tea sets and office complexes, and teases out a host of often surprising philosophical insights. The Architecture of Happiness will take you on a beguiling tour through the history and psychology of architecture and interior design, and will forever alter your relationship with buildings. It will change the way you look at your current home � and help you make the right decisions about your next one.

The Architecture of Happiness

Alain De Botton

A study of architecture examines how we both shape and are shaped by our private homes and public edifices and explains how our stylistic choices can be used to increase our chances of happiness.

If I had read this prior to going to architecture school I think I would have been much more fascinated by its assertions. For me, I didn't gain any new perspectives of architecture or its importance, which I was hoping for. The first half of the book leaned into the human experience more than the latter half, I enjoyed the first half much more.

karla nicole

Annika Arguemore

This book should've been called The Happiness of Architecture instead. Since it's called The Architecture of Happiness, I thought it would revolve around Positive Psychology. But as the Filipino saying goes "maraming namamatay sa maling akala" which simply says I should've had the presence of mind to read the blurb and have a gist of what the book was really about.

I had high hopes for this one, seeing as that it was written by Alain de Botton, the founder of The School of Life, an organization that I subscribe to and am a big fan of. If I'm going to be honest with myself, I will most probably not finish this. All the parts that I've read are just repeating summaries of the previous parts with a little bit of added information into it (and the information, although it sheds light upon certain things, did not make for a more compelling read). It feels like I'm just going around in circles. I'm sure what he wanted to say would have been really insightful, I was just not on board with the execution.

Hannah Yang

absolutely lovely read! i'm always a sucker for vaguely pretentious books about "why ___ matters" and this book on architecture, design, beauty, and space really articulated some helpful ideas about why we need 'good' environments. rather than being dense or deeply academic, this read felt more like a series of aesthetic 'self help' essays: poetic, resonant, and beautifully strung together.

"our feeling about places […] can in the end always be traced back to nothing more occult than a failure of empathy, to architects who forgot to pay homage to the quirks of the human mind, who allowed themselves to be seduced by a simplistic vision of who we might be, rather than attending to the labyrinthine reality of who we are. […] the places we call beautiful are, by contrast, the work of those rare architects with the humility to interrogate themselves adequately about their desires and the tenacity to translate their fleeting apprehensions of joy into logical plans — a combination that enables them to create environments that satisfy needs we never consciously knew we even had." (248-9)

Matthew Royal

This reads as a hodge-podge clipping book of Alain's thoughts on architecture. There's an almost-synthesis that starts sounding like architecture should be designed to compensate for people's neuroses, but it fell short of a complete theory. I think there are some gems here, but they need to be polished into a coherent whole.

Alexandra Sklar

“We owe it to the fields that our houses will not be the inferiors of the virgin land they have replaced. We owe it to the worms and the trees that the buildings we cover them with will stand as promised of the highest and most intelligent kinds of happiness.”

Cindy Lieberman

“Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places.” 

“Talking architecture seriously, therefore makes some singular and strenuous demands upon us....conceding that we are inconveniently vulnerable to the color of our wallpaper and that our sense of purpose may be derailed by an unfortunate bedspread.” — Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

I know that bedspread of which he speaks! I have spent more money than necessary on a faucet or a drawer pull because it sparked joy. 

While primarily focused on architecture, as you can tell from the above quotes the book’s subject is a broader one, incorporating interior and exterior architecture, design, and engineering. Fashion and society. In an historical perspective. 

The author elegantly elevates the role of architecture in society while also admitting that, “The noblest architecture can sometimes do less for us than a siesta or an aspirin.”

I enjoyed the audiobook, but would have liked an accompanying PDF or link to images. If you are unfamiliar with major architectural styles, movements, or iconic structures, the print book would be a better option — assuming it has illustrations of flying buttresses and the different styles of Greek columns, plus photos of gothic cathedrals, English cottages in the Lake District, and Philip Johnson’s Glass House, among other items discussed.

In The Architecture of Happiness, bestselling author Alain de Botton explores one of our most intense but often hidden love affairs: with our houses and their furnishings. He asks: What makes a house truly beautiful? Why are many new houses so ugly? Why do we argue so bitterly about sofas and pictures - and can differences of taste ever be satisfactorily resolved? To answer these questions and many more, de Botton looks at buildings across the world, from medieval wooden huts to modern skyscrapers; he examines sofas and cathedrals, tea sets and office complexes, and teases out a host of often surprising philosophical insights. The Architecture of Happiness will take you on a beguiling tour through the history and psychology of architecture and interior design, and will change the way you look at your home. 'Entertaining, stimulating and witty. Clever, provocative and fresh as a daisy.' Literary Review 'De Botton's writing is elegant but utterly accessible . . . beautifully written and thought provoking . . . will make you look at your surroundings in a whole new way.' Image 'De Botton is a brave and highly intelligent writer.' Observer 'De Botton makes even the most challenging of subjects invitingly simple.' Eve 'A powerful eye-opener.' Mail on Sunday

The Architecture of Happiness

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