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| Author: Alain De Botton
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $9.55
You Save: $7.40 (44%)
New (37) Used (8) from $9.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 5938
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0307277240
Dewey Decimal Number: 720
EAN: 9780307277244
ASIN: 0307277240
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Beautiful book January 12, 2008
I learnt a lot from this book, usually Alain de Botton's books are not very easy to read but this one is so simple and pictures help a lot. I have seen so many Roman and ancient Greek buildings, I only appreciate how good they look. Now I know more about the styles and relationship with the human pyschology. Really great book for architecture-illiterate.
 An interesting essay on form... January 4, 2008
I suppose all art attempts to bring essence into form and architecture is no exception. De Botton digs right in and starts analyzing the ingredients that bring space to life, and poetically decodes the language of form and attempts to explain how it resonates and entices the observer and for what reasons different people are drawn to different architectural forms based on their own lacking qualities. It sounds pretty heady and it is. The author opens the book with the most poignant description of the unfailingly loyal character of a house which brought shivers to me as I recounted my love affairs with all the houses I grew up in. His writing style instantly drew me in- with his clever pepperings of metaphor and other literary communicative techniques. By the end of the book, however, as the subject material became a little more obtuse, his writing style seemed to become more pompous and strayed from effective communication into the realm of word-smithing bravado. You know, kind of like those inexperienced jazz musicians who run off into incomprehensibly difficult solos - more intent on displaying superlative technique and ego fattening talent than eliciting a gentle stirring of the soul. It became somewhat annoying, but I am going to re-read some of it and see if a 2nd reading bears this out. In any case, the mental journey he provides for any architecture freak like me is truly thrilling albeit somewhat laborious! -
EXQUISITE RUMINATIONS! October 25, 2007
The Architecture of Happiness is about beauty, in our physical surroundings and in our lives. The elegant style of writing, spare, essential and learned, takes us on a sublime tour of art as architecture and architecture as art, gently prodding us to take stock of all manner of aesthetic detail in our man-made environments, from follies and foibles, to superb examples of man's strivings to create lasting, transformng public and private spaces, as well as to ponder the historical/artistic links, which lead us from "then," to now, and beyond. This lovely book reminds us, advises us, to take a moment and "see" what is right before our eyes.
Thought provoking September 9, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had read Alain's earlier book on the Consolations of Philosophy and caught parts of the TV series concerning this book. It is a difficult book to describe but I believe thought provoking and comforting are probably best. Alain considers why we are drawn to certain styles of homes and the assumptions architects and engineers have made in constructing homes and cities. I would read sections of the book then put it aside to consider the matters he had raised. This book explained my unease in some houses and love of others. I loved it.
 Buildings and aesthetics August 15, 2007
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
More a description than an attempt to explain. An important topic treated in an interesting manner.
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