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Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism
The architectural implications of the intangible guidelines of happiness indexes, the new marketplace of emotions. and the relentless ideology of positivity.
How do we design our cities when our most intimate experiences are incessantly tracked and our feelings become the base of new modes of production that prioritize the immaterial over the material? Since the 2008 financial crisis, lists of well-being indicators, happiness indexes, and quality-of-life rankings have gone viral. Concurrently, the emotional data presented in these surveys―including perceptions on questions such as loneliness, friendship, and intimate fears―feed an expanding political agenda of happiness and a new form of market whose most decisive asset is “affect.”
Our Happy Life investigates the architectural implications of this trend by dissecting and questioning the political, economic, and emotional conditions that generate space today. Organized as a visual narrative with critical readings by Will Davies, Daniel Fujiwara, Simon Fujiwara, Ingo Niermann, Deane Simpson, and Mirko Zardini, the book reveals architecture, city, and landscape as contested surfaces, caught between the intangible guidelines of happiness indexes, the new marketplace of emotions, and the relentless ideology of positivity.
How do we design our cities when our most intimate experiences are incessantly tracked and our feelings become the base of new modes of production that prioritize the immaterial over the material? Since the 2008 financial crisis, lists of well-being indicators, happiness indexes, and quality-of-life rankings have gone viral. Concurrently, the emotional data presented in these surveys―including perceptions on questions such as loneliness, friendship, and intimate fears―feed an expanding political agenda of happiness and a new form of market whose most decisive asset is “affect.”
Our Happy Life investigates the architectural implications of this trend by dissecting and questioning the political, economic, and emotional conditions that generate space today. Organized as a visual narrative with critical readings by Will Davies, Daniel Fujiwara, Simon Fujiwara, Ingo Niermann, Deane Simpson, and Mirko Zardini, the book reveals architecture, city, and landscape as contested surfaces, caught between the intangible guidelines of happiness indexes, the new marketplace of emotions, and the relentless ideology of positivity.
328 pages, Paperback
Published September 24, 2019
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January 4, 2021
“This happiness is making me suffer”
Garutti presents a book showcasing part of an extensive research on happiness, architecture and economy through different lenses and talking with different professionals, each and every one of them on the hunt for the elusive Happiness.
Reading the book, it seems to me that this triad followed some quantum mechanics principle by which it seems almost impossible to get to know the observed system without any major interference by the observer.
Along the pages we are shown how the quest for pinpointing what might makes humanity happiness seems so vain and quixotic. Nowadays we have an endless quantity of data self generating itself out of our cellphone. Still, what transpires from the text and correlated images of this book is how important this research is but at the same time how futile it is.
Will we find such capital H- Happiness at the end of this mountain of data or is it something that cannot be chased but only experienced in its volatility?
Garutti presents a book showcasing part of an extensive research on happiness, architecture and economy through different lenses and talking with different professionals, each and every one of them on the hunt for the elusive Happiness.
Reading the book, it seems to me that this triad followed some quantum mechanics principle by which it seems almost impossible to get to know the observed system without any major interference by the observer.
Along the pages we are shown how the quest for pinpointing what might makes humanity happiness seems so vain and quixotic. Nowadays we have an endless quantity of data self generating itself out of our cellphone. Still, what transpires from the text and correlated images of this book is how important this research is but at the same time how futile it is.
Will we find such capital H- Happiness at the end of this mountain of data or is it something that cannot be chased but only experienced in its volatility?
Displaying 1 of 1 review