Download or read book The Architecture of Happiness written by Alain De Botton and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2010-12-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author Alain de Botton considers how our private homes and public edifices influence how we feel, and how we could build dwellings in which we would stand a better chance of happiness. In this witty, erudite look at how we shape, and are shaped by, our surroundings, Alain de Botton applies Stendhal’s motto that “Beauty is the promise of happiness” to the spaces we inhabit daily. Why should we pay attention to what architecture has to say to us? de Botton asks provocatively. With his trademark lucidity and humour, de Botton traces how human needs and desires have been served by styles of architecture, from stately Classical to minimalist Modern, arguing that the stylistic choices of a society can represent both its cherished ideals and the qualities it desperately lacks. On an individual level, de Botton has deep sympathy for our need to see our selves reflected in our surroundings; he demonstrates with great wisdom how buildings — just like friends — can serve as guardians of our identity. Worrying about the shape of our sofa or the colour of our walls might seem self-indulgent, but de Botton considers the hopes and fears we have for our homes at a new level of depth and insight. When shopping for furniture or remodelling the kitchen, we don’t just consider functionality but also the major questions of aesthetics and the philosophy of art: What is beauty? Can beautiful surroundings make us good? Can beauty bring happiness? The buildings we find beautiful, de Botton concludes, are those that represent our ideas of a meaningful life. The Architecture of Happiness marks a return to what Alain does best — taking on a subject whose allure is at once tantalizing and a little forbidding and offering to readers a completely beguiling and original exploration of the subject. As he did with Proust, philosophy, and travel, now he does with architecture.
Download or read book How Buildings Learn written by Stewart Brand and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1995-10-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buildings have often been studies whole in space, but never before have they been studied whole in time. How Buildings Learn is a masterful new synthesis that proposes that buildings adapt best when constantly refined and reshaped by their occupants, and that architects can mature from being artists of space to becoming artists of time. From the connected farmhouses of New England to I.M. Pei's Media Lab, from "satisficing" to "form follows funding," from the evolution of bungalows to the invention of Santa Fe Style, from Low Road military surplus buildings to a High Road English classic like Chatsworth—this is a far-ranging survey of unexplored essential territory. More than any other human artifacts, buildings improve with time—if they're allowed to. How Buildings Learn shows how to work with time rather than against it.
Download or read book Happy by Design written by Ben Channon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2023-11-15 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can good design truly make us happier? Given that we spend over 80% of our time in buildings, shouldn't we have a better understanding of how they make us feel? Happy by Design explores the ways in which buildings, spaces and cities affect our moods. It reveals how architecture and design can make us happy and support mental health, and explains how poor design can have the opposite effect. Presented through a series of easy-to-understand design tips and accompanied by beautiful diagrams and illustrations, Happy by Design is a fantastic resource for architects, designers and students, or for anybody who would like to better understand the relationship between buildings and happiness. With the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, the importance of designing for mental wellbeing has never been higher on the agenda. Whether through low-energy design, designing in better ventilation to avoid passing on pathogens or the realisation of the importance of accessing nature within an environment, this revised edition has been updated to reflect a changed world.
Download or read book Architecture of Being written by Alan Faena and published by Rizzoli Publications. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Authored during the height of the pandemic amidst a period of self-reflection, culture and style impresario Alan Faena conceives a deeply personal framework of attributes to liberate the self in this highly personal manifesto exploring the constructs of human potential. To build my dreams, I first had to build myself. In this book I share the secrets of that Architecture. — Alan Faena As a creative with a highly personal vision of design, Alan Faena has produced some of the most extraordinary spaces in the recent past — from his ingenious reconstruction of an abandoned neighborhood in Buenos Aires to the heights of luxury in Miami Beach. Faena now presents the guiding principles that have helped him produce these urban marvels. Authored during the height of the pandemic, Faena conceived a deeply personal framework of tenets that guided his journey of self-discovery and creativity. Composed of eight thematic pillars — Creation, Vision, Weakness, Silence, Path, Present, Love and Architecture — these chapters explore the inspired source from which all creativity emanates, from the personal battles to the deliberate decisions that ultimately define Faena’s vision and infuse his imaginative vision.
Download or read book Status Anxiety written by Alain De Botton and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “There's no writer alive like de Botton” (Chicago Tribune), and now this internationally heralded author turns his attention to the insatiable human quest for status—a quest that has less to do with material comfort than love. Anyone who’s ever lost sleep over an unreturned phone call or the neighbor’s Lexus had better read Alain de Botton’s irresistibly clear-headed new book, immediately. For in its pages, a master explicator of our civilization and its discontents explores the notion that our pursuit of status is actually a pursuit of love, ranging through Western history and thought from St. Augustine to Andrew Carnegie and Machiavelli to Anthony Robbins. Whether it’s assessing the class-consciousness of Christianity or the convulsions of consumer capitalism, dueling or home-furnishing, Status Anxiety is infallibly entertaining. And when it examines the virtues of informed misanthropy, art appreciation, or walking a lobster on a leash, it is not only wise but helpful.
Download or read book The Nine Rooms of Happiness written by Lucy Danziger and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Room Are You In? Ask any woman how she's feeling. Even when things look pretty darn great from the outside, chances are that at least one thing (and it may seem minor to others) is nagging at her, making her feel less than spectacular, bringing her down: I'm too fat. My husband doesn't help enough around the house. My friend is going to be mad if I don't call her back. Why don't my kids try harder at school? My job is less than inspiring. Whatever happened to that old boyfriend, the one who got away? Whether it's the size of our thighs or our bank accounts, there always seems to be something that isn't measuring up to our high standards--and we let the dissatisfaction spill over into other areas of our lives, distracting us from taking pleasure in everything that's going right. In The Nine Rooms of Happiness, Lucy Danziger, editor in chief of Self magazine, and women's-health psychiatrist Catherine Birndorf use the metaphor of a house to release us from this phenomenon. In this house, the living room is where we deal with friendships and our social life; the bedroom is where we explore intimacy, romance, relationships, and sex; the bathroom is for issues relating to health and body image; the kitchen is for nourishment and the division of chores; and so on. Our "inner house" can have eight beautifully designed, neat and tidy rooms, and one messy one, and still we focus on the mess. The Nine Rooms of Happiness pinpoints common self-destructive patterns of behavior and offers key processes that will help readers clean up their emotional architecture. After each room is "clean," Danziger and Birndorf show us how we can spend time on ourselves figuring out what is most meaningful to us--finding larger passion and purpose that makes returning to the rest of our house a pleasure, no matter what calamity or mess awaits. The result? After reading this book you'll think differently about the things that are bringing you down and be able to live a happier, more joy filled life, in every room of your emotional house. From the outside, you'd think I have it all: beautiful house, wonderful children, devoted husband. But am I happy? I think so. There's nothing that has gone terribly wrong. There's no reason for me not to be happy. But I don't feel happy so much as I feel I'm just going through the motions. Sometimes I have the feeling that there's more and I just haven't found it yet. But what . . . and how dare I want more? Isn't all that I have enough? --from The Nine Rooms of Happiness
Download or read book The Consolations of Philosophy written by Alain De Botton and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, a delightful, truly consoling work that proves that philosophy can be a supreme source of help for our most painful everyday problems. Perhaps only Alain de Botton could uncover practical wisdom in the writings of some of the greatest thinkers of all time. But uncover he does, and the result is an unexpected book of both solace and humor. Dividing his work into six sections -- each highlighting a different psychic ailment and the appropriate philosopher -- de Botton offers consolation for unpopularity from Socrates, for not having enough money from Epicurus, for frustration from Seneca, for inadequacy from Montaigne, and for a broken heart from Schopenhauer (the darkest of thinkers and yet, paradoxically, the most cheering). Consolation for envy -- and, of course, the final word on consolation -- comes from Nietzsche: "Not everything which makes us feel better is good for us." This wonderfully engaging book will, however, make us feel better in a good way, with equal measures of wit and wisdom.
Download or read book The Algebra of Happiness written by Scott Galloway and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unconventional book of wisdom and life advice from renowned business school professor and New York Times bestselling author of The Four Scott Galloway. Scott Galloway teaches brand strategy at NYU's Stern School of Business, but his most popular lectures deal with life strategy, not business. In the classroom, on his blog, and in YouTube videos garnering millions of views, he regularly offers hard-hitting answers to the big questions: What's the formula for a life well lived? How can you have a meaningful career, not just a lucrative one? Is work/life balance possible? What are the elements of a successful relationship? The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning draws on Professor Galloway's mix of anecdotes and no-BS insight to share hard-won wisdom about life's challenges, along with poignant personal stories. Whether it's advice on if you should drop out of school to be an entrepreneur (it might have worked for Steve Jobs, but you're probably not Steve Jobs), ideas on how to position yourself in a crowded job market (do something "boring" and move to a city; passion is for people who are already rich), discovering what the most important decision in your life is (it's not your job, your car, OR your zip code), or arguing that our relationships to others are ultimately all that matter, Galloway entertains, inspires, and provokes. Brash, funny, and surprisingly moving, The Algebra of Happiness represents a refreshing perspective on our need for both professional success and personal fulfillment, and makes the perfect gift for any new graduate, or for anyone who feels adrift.
Download or read book The Great Indoors written by Emily Anthes and published by Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Architectural Record Notable Book A fascinating, thought-provoking journey into our built environment Modern humans are an indoor species. We spend 90 percent of our time inside, shuttling between homes and offices, schools and stores, restaurants and gyms. And yet, in many ways, the indoor world remains unexplored territory. For all the time we spend inside buildings, we rarely stop to consider: How do these spaces affect our mental and physical well-being? Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Our productivity, performance, and relationships? In this wide-ranging, character-driven book, science journalist Emily Anthes takes us on an adventure into the buildings in which we spend our days, exploring the profound, and sometimes unexpected, ways that they shape our lives. Drawing on cutting-edge research, she probes the pain-killing power of a well-placed window and examines how the right office layout can expand our social networks. She investigates how room temperature regulates our cognitive performance, how the microbes hiding in our homes influence our immune systems, and how cafeteria design affects what—and how much—we eat. Along the way, Anthes takes readers into an operating room designed to minimize medical errors, a school designed to boost students’ physical fitness, and a prison designed to support inmates’ psychological needs. And she previews the homes of the future, from the high-tech houses that could monitor our health to the 3D-printed structures that might allow us to live on the Moon. The Great Indoors provides a fresh perspective on our most familiar surroundings and a new understanding of the power of architecture and design. It's an argument for thoughtful interventions into the built environment and a story about how to build a better world—one room at a time.
Download or read book Building Happiness written by Jane Wernick and published by Black Dog Architecture. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Building Happiness project was started by Building Futures early in 2007, with the aim of discussing whether the way we design our built environment can have a direct bearing on how happy we feel. Can we construct happiness?" "The book follows on from numerous consultative initiatives, including a public debate hosted in May 2007, with the aim of gathering public and informed opinion on the subject." "We spoke to a number key thinker and practitioners to share their thoughts. Architects, artists, policy advisors, developers, engineers and health researchers have all contributed. In addition, we have asked people who use and inhabit our built environment to describe places which do indeed make them happy, including the journalist Kirsty Wark, the sculptor Antony Gormley, the architect Richard Rogers, and the Young Vic Theatre Director David Lan." "This book aims to provoke discussion amongst all those who inhabit, plan or design our built spaces, and to encourage the professionals to keep happiness at the centre of their work."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Why Architecture Matters written by Paul Goldberger and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic work on the joy of experiencing architecture, with a new afterword reflecting on architecture’s place in the contemporary moment “Architecture begins to matter,” writes Paul Goldberger, “when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads.” In Why Architecture Matters, he shows us how that works in examples ranging from a small Cape Cod cottage to the vast, flowing Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Guggenheim Bilbao. He eloquently describes the Church of Sant’Ivo in Rome as a work that “embraces the deepest complexities of human imagination.” In his afterword to this new edition, Goldberger addresses the current climate in architectural history and takes a more nuanced look at projects such as Thomas Jefferson’s academical village at the University of Virginia and figures including Philip Johnson, whose controversial status has been the topic of much recent discourse. He argues that the emotional impact of great architecture remains vital, even as he welcomes the shift in the field to an increased emphasis on social justice and sustainability.
Download or read book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture written by Robert Venturi and published by The Museum of Modern Art. This book was released on 1977 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreword by Arthur Drexler. Introduction by Vincent Scully.
Download or read book The Architecture of Change written by Jerilou Hammett and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Architecture of Change: Building a Better World is a collection of articles that demonstrates the power of the human spirit to transform the environments in which we live. This inspiring book profiles people who refused to accept that things couldn’t change, who saw the possibility of making something better, and didn’t esitate to act. Breaking down the stereotypes surrounding “socially engaged architecture,” this book shows who can actually impact the lives of communities. Like Bernard Rudofsky’s seminal Architecture Without Architects, it explores communal architecture produced not by specialists but by people, drawing on their common lives and experiences, who have a unique insight into their particular needs and environments. These unsung heroes are teachers and artists, immigrants and activists, grandmothers in the projects, students and planners, architects and residents of some of our poorest places. Running through their stories is a constant theme of social justice as an underlying principle of the built environment. This book is about opening one’s eyes to new ways of interpreting the world, and how to go about changing it.
Download or read book The Experience of Architecture written by Henry Plummer and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought-provoking consideration of how architecture, from a doorknob to a city plan, can influence human behavior How does the experience of turning a door handle, opening a door from one space into another, affect us? It is no wonder that the door, one of the most elemental architectural forms, has such metaphorical richness. But even on a purely physical human level, the cold touch of a brass handle or the swish of a sliding screen gives rise to an emotional reaction, sometimes modest, occasionally profound. This book aims to understand how these everyday acts are influenced by architectural form, a concept that is vital for all architects to grasp. It considers how specifically built elements and volumes, taken from a wide array of buildings and settings around the world, can affect our powers of decision. From hand-carved stairs in Greek villages to free-floating catwalks, from the elegant processional steps of Renaissance Italy to Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterly manipulation of form, all provide very different experiences of stepping from one level to the next, and all affect our experience of that space. Seamlessly integrating text and image, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of our daily interactions with architecture, looking at stairs, floors and paths, moving interior spaces, perception and perspective, transparency and the relationship between a building and its setting. This book is not just for architects and designers engaged in the production of space, but for all those who seek a richer understanding of their place in the built world.
Download or read book Let Over Lambda written by Doug Hoyte and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Let Over Lambda is one of the most hardcore computer programming books out there. Starting with the fundamentals, it describes the most advanced features of the most advanced language: Common Lisp. Only the top percentile of programmers use lisp and if you can understand this book you are in the top percentile of lisp programmers. If you are looking for a dry coding manual that re-hashes common-sense techniques in whatever langue du jour, this book is not for you. This book is about pushing the boundaries of what we know about programming. While this book teaches useful skills that can help solve your programming problems today and now, it has also been designed to be entertaining and inspiring. If you have ever wondered what lisp or even programming itself is really about, this is the book you have been looking for.
Download or read book The Architecture of Desire written by Mary Gentle and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-07-25 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mercenaries in lace and steel roam the countryside and the heads of criminals are impaled on London Bridge. The characters' relationships are played out in the shadow of the hangman's rope. Sequel to Rats and Gargoyles.
Download or read book The News written by Alain de Botton and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2014-02-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER From one of our greatest voices in modern philosophy, author of The Course of Love, The Consolations of Philosophy, Religion for Atheists and The School of Life - an accessible and eye-opening exploration of our relationship with 'the news' 'His gift is to prompt us to think about how we live and how we might change things' The Times 'De Botton analyses modern society with great charm, learning and humour. His remedies come as a welcome relief' Daily Mail 'Like all classic de Botton, there are plenty of insightful observations here, peppered with some psychology, a dash of philosophy, a big dollop of commonsense' Scotsman 'The news' occupies a range of manic and peculiar positions in our lives. We invest it with an authority and importance which used to be the preserve of religion - but what does it do for us? Mixing current affairs with philosophical reflections, de Botton offers a brilliant illustrated guide to the precautions we should take before venturing anywhere near the news and the 'noise' it generates. Witty and global in reach, The News will ensure you'll never look at reports of a celebrity story or political scandal in quite the same way again.
