The architecture of happiness

Alternating ideas and savory anecdotes, Alain de Botton offers us a book that talks about architecture, but above all, it talks about what we lack and often have in excess to achieve true happiness.

If it is true that we are what we eat, it is also true that we are what we inhabit, and one only needs to enter a house to know not only what its owner possesses, but also what they hide and what they desire.

Happiness depends on the idea we have of ourselves, on the ability to match what is with what should be, and this is reflected in the objects that surround us. This has been so since time immemorial, and Alain de Botton takes us by the hand to review, from this somewhat unusual perspective, the buildings that have marked the history of architecture, from Palladio's Villa Rotonda to Le Corbusier's functional houses and Jean Nouvel's skyscrapers.

Stendhal said that beauty is a promise of happiness, and each person has an idea of beauty according to the era and circumstances in which they have lived. That is why what was beautiful at one time cannot be reproduced exactly as it was without seeming inadequate to us now. Certain innovation is necessary, but there are architectural elements that are repeated throughout the centuries because they respond to the deep needs of humans, and the path to happiness relies on them: on symmetry, for example, or on the curves of certain objects. Wherever there is the proper arrangement of lines and strokes, there will be our ideal habitat, that place we like to return to because there we rediscover the best of ourselves.

Review:
«For Botton, architecture and design are intensely personal. Buildings have character, vices and virtues; they look at the world with an almost human face.»
William Grietes, The New York Times

«De Botton has a wonderful ability to approach weighty topics from engaging and eccentric perspectives.»
The Seattle Times

«An elegant and [...] unusual book, full of great ideas. [...] Rarely has there been a more delicate marriage of words and images.»
The New York Sun

«With originality, verve, and wit, De Botton explains how we find reflections of our own values in the buildings we construct.»
San Francisco Chronicle

«De Botton keeps architecture on a human scale.»
Los Angeles Times

«Alain de Botton has restored philosophy to its most important purpose: helping us live better.»
Christina Hardyment, The Independent