Architecture of Happiness

I started reading this book in the hopes of gaining more of an insight into the ways in which architecture can be designed to inspire happiness. Instead the author talks more about the house and how approaches to architecture have changed over the course of history.

Describing the house as 'not only a physical but psychological sanctuary', Bolton goes on to talk about how architecture requires us to open ourselves to our surroundings. The smallest details, such as 'a run of old floorboards' or a 'wash of morning light on the wall' can open our eyes to the beauty that can stand out in even the most mundane of architecture.

In the past architecture was seen to be great through the use of decoration and the 'functionally unnecessary' details so often included in buildings. Often this ornamentation added nothing to the structure of the building, only serving to falsify structures and form illusions of being something more. It wasn't until the 1900s that Le Corbusier suggested that architecture should look towards the approach engineers took, to produce more frugal and simple solutions, that architecture became more truthful in its appearance and lost much of the grandeur of the past. The function of the house, according to Le Corbusier, was deemed to provide 3 things:

1. a shelter against heat, cold, rain, thieves and the inquisitive;

2. a receptacle for light and sun;

3. a certain number of cells appropriate for cooking, work and personal life.

This rather sterile approach to the house was challenged by John Ruskin who said "we are in the end unlikely to respect a structure which does no more than keep us dry and warm". He suggested that, rather than the building acting as a shelter and stage for our lives, the house should also speak to us by having a quality in its spaces that might inspire and move us, much like a piece of religious architecture might.

The book concludes with a chapter looking at how the development of new houses is typically synonymous with the feeling of loss, in particular the loss of the simple beauty of the countryside that they replace. This is particularly thought provoking for me due to the nature of my project, introducing new dwellings into Sway. In order to counteract this feeling, the houses that replace the unspoilt land should invoke happiness through the design and construction of building that add to and not take away from the history of the sites they are built upon.

Reference:

Bolton, A (2008) The Architecture of Happiness. Vintage International, New York