My good friend Maarten Lens-Fritzgerald is on an amazing journey. You should definitely check out his weblog about his fight against a tumor named Theo.
But the reason that I mention him here, is that he shared a book by Alain de Botton with me that is titled “The Architecture of Happiness
A little preview on the book:
However, architecture is perplexing in how inconsistent is its capacity to generate the happiness on which its claim to our attention is founded. While an attractive building may on occasion flatter an ascending mood, there will be times when the most congenial of locations will be unable to dislodge our sadness or misanthropy.
We can feel anxious and envious even though the floor we’re standing on has been imported from a remote quarry, and finely sculpted window frames have been painted a soothing grey. Our inner metronome can be unimpressed by the efforts of workmen to create a fountain or nurture a symmetrical line of oak trees. We can fall into a petty argument which ends in threats of divorce in a building by Geoffrey Bawa or Louis Kahn. Houses can invite us to join them in a mood which we find ourselves incapable of summoning. The noblest architecture can sometimes do less for us than a siesta or an aspirin.
If you are interested in both happiness AND architecture, this is probably a “must-read” for you. View the book on Amazon