CATEGORYARCHITECTURE

Building HappinessArchitecture to Make You Smile

• Building Happiness presents an abundance of views on the nature of happiness withinour built environment. Do architectural spaces inuence our emotional state andcontribute a positive spiritual feeling or are they merely bricks and mortar?

• Building Happiness explores how we measure and dene our ‘happiness’ and to whatextent the space we live in has a signicant psychological impact on these evaluations.

• Taking the initial enquiries to this question from a variety of architects, such as WillAlsop, the thread of this discussion is woven through to the present day with texts anddiscussions from Kirsty Wark, Glenda Jackson and Richard Wentworth.

• Building Happiness also features an original interview with Sir Richard Rogers, whosebuildings include Centre Pompidou, European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg andthe Millennium Dome in London.

• The book is packed with visual representations in the form of photographs, diagramsand artists work, which reect on the mood altering effects of the built environment.

• Building Happiness brings new light to discussions on contemporary architecture and isan ideal title for architects, students and anyone with an interest in the built environment.

order informationMarston Book ServicesT 01235 465 500F 01235 465 555

ISBN: 978 1 90615546 9Paperback192 pages70 colour and b/w ills21 x 15 cmPub date: August 2008£24.95

Editor

Jane Wernick

10a acton streetlondon wc1x 9ngwww.blackdogonline.com

T + 44 (0) 207 713 5097F + 44 (0) 207 713 8682

VAT 672785688 company registration number 3026695Black Dog Publishing Limited, London, UK, is an environmentally responsible company.

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DESCRIPTION

Building Happiness is published in association with Building Futures, a collaborative groupworking alongside RIBA to develop standards in the built environment. This architecturetitle explores ideas and debates initiated by great minds such as Herman Hertzberger andAldo Van Eyck, with their concerns regarding the built environment, physical well-beingand how we live in cities. These discussions are given a contemporary relevance throughinclusion of the work of contemporary architects, artists, writers and commentators.

The nature of how we are conditioned by, and utilise, our environment is considered indetail, particularly as this affects our sense of wellbeing or happiness. Is this a personalfeeling or is it how space is used in our community that constructs happiness? Is it greeneco-houses, traditional cottages or 1970s modernism that makes you happy?

Building Happiness comprises both short commentaries and longer essays concerned withthe impact of our built environment. With contributions from social commentators such asRita Chakrabarti the BBC correspondent, the newsreader Kirsty Wark and the actress andpolitician Glenda Jackson. The book will include an interview with the prestigiousarchitect Sir Richard Rogers and examples of artists work, such as that by RichardWentworth. Other contributors include: Jeremy Till Director of Architecture at ShefeldUniversity; Max Fordham, high prole engineer; and Dickon Robinson, from the RIBA andpast Director of development of The Peabody Trust.

Jane Wernick is a structural engineer who has worked in both Europe and the USA. AsAssociate Director of Ove Arup & Partners during the construction of the London Eye,which she is largely accredited with. She is now Director of Jane Wernick Associates.

Building Happiness