The Architecture of Happiness

posted by Matthew Bushey

There is one book that has been making the rounds at our office, adopted as a sort of unofficial guide to architectural style and beauty. It has been recommended at office gatherings, shared between coworkers, and gifted to interns when they leave our firm to prepare for the next stage in their design career.

This is The Architecture of Happiness, by the Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton.

The book is built on the premise that our moods are directly affected by the nature of the furniture, buildings and streets that surround us. In fact, we are influenced so much so by our built environment that it actually shapes us into the person we become.

You may recognize The Architecture of Happiness from the feature role it played in the 2009 boy-meets-girl movie 500 Days of Summer. The book was favored by the film’s protagonist, a young architect-in-training who eventually gives it to his elusive love interest, the quirky hipster played by Zooey Deschanel.

Just as these two were searching for true happiness in life, De Botton sets out on his own search in the pages of this book, exploring the history of architectural style and uncovering what it is that makes a building beautiful. The answer comes into focus about a third of the way in, when De Botton quotes the 19th-century French writer Stendhal in saying, “Beauty is the promise of happiness”:

His aphorism has the virtue of differentiating our love of beauty from an academic preoccupation with aesthetics, and integrating it instead with the qualities we need to prosper as whole human beings. If the search for happiness is the underlying quest of our lives, it seems only natural that it should simultaneously be the essential theme to which beauty alludes. … To call a work of architecture or design beautiful is to recognize it as a rendition of values critical to our flourishing, a transubstantiation of our individual ideals in a material medium.

This is the main argument of the book.  When we think of a building – or a chair, or a door, or a fence post – as beautiful, it is because we see in it the promise of happiness.  Or to put it another way: the promise of living the good life.

So how is a set of human ideals translated into the abstract artform of architecture? In the past, it was easy. You would follow one of the classical orders, with precisely tapered columns and carefully proportioned pediments. It was all thoroughly prescribed in the widely accepted books of architecture by masters such as Vitruvius, Alberti and Palladio.

Later, in the 20th century, the science of engineering eclipsed the master Architect. Minimalism and functionality ruled the day. A bridge was seen as beautiful if it made a graceful span with the lightest of materials, without any extraneous ornament or decoration. The prevailing belief was that for a structure to be honest, it would perform its mechanical functions efficiently. This philosophy was promoted by the Godfather of modernism, Le Corbusier, and epitomized by his most notable residence, Villa Savoye. The fact that the roof leaked incessantly and rendered the place inhabitable did little to affect the architect who famously professed that a building was a machine for living.

Le Corbusier, living room, Villa Savoye, Poissy, 1931

From here, De Botton presents a different perspective which is not restricted to the tenets of classicism or modernism. His argument is that the beauty of architecture manifests itself when a building communicates the idea of happiness. But how does this happen?

It may be anthropometric – when buildings exhibit an often literal representation of a living form – or psychological – when the human spirit itself is interpreted in bricks and mortar. Examples abound. The rounded arches of a Roman loggia convey serenity and poise, while the pointed arches of Gothic cathedral speak of ardour and intensity. “We can be moved by a column that meets a roof with grace, by worn stone steps that hint at wisdom and by a Georgian doorway that demonstrates playfulness and courtesy in its fanlight window.” De Botton goes on to describe the virtues of buildings that facilitate this conversation: order, balance, elegance and coherence.

Ducal Palace, Urbino

Thomas Leverton, fanlight window, Bedford Square, 1783

The Architecture of Happiness is organized as a sequence of ideas which eventually build into a recipe for reading our built environment. In the end, De Botton presents examples of contemporary architecture from Japan, Switzerland and the Netherlands that embody many of these characteristics. These buildings succeed in carrying the valuable lessons of the past while leading us into a “restless, global future”. They respond to the past without being nostalgic. They adapt to the local vernacular while exhibiting a universal appeal. And now I know why they make me happy.

Peter Zumthor, Gugalun House, Versam, 1994

Brunelleschi’s Dome

Posted by Matthew Bushey

Before the summer completely winds down, I want to offer a recommendation for one of the books from my summer reading list.  It was in part by chance that I picked up a copy of Ross King’s 2000 national bestseller Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture.  But it was also from a desire to expand my understanding of this pivotal structure after having studied it firsthand in Florence with the Syracuse University study abroad program, some 15 years ago.

 

If there was ever one place to be, at one moment in time, to witness the biggest technological and aesthetic breakthroughs in architecture, it has got to be Florence, Italy in the Renaissance years of the 15^th century.  The home of the greatest revolution in art and architecture, the Florentine Renaissance produced works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Dante. And towering above them all stood the Santa Maria Del Fiore, Florence’s central cathedral that was built to rival all others.  The dome that sits atop the cathedral was the widest ever built at the time, with a diameter of 143 feet, and the highest, topping out at 350 feet above street level.  It remained the largest such structure for almost 500 years and today remains as the largest brick-and-mortar dome in the world. 

The Opera del Duomo, the guild of wealthy Wool Merchants who were responsible for building and funding the cathedral, had selected a design for the cupola by Neri di Fioravanti.  Most gothic cathedrals of the time relied on flying buttresses – external structural supports that braced the outside of the basilica.  But Neri’s design did away with this external bracing that many in Italy considered ugly and burdensome.  Instead, the proposed design relied on a series of stone and iron chains embedded inside the double-skinned dome to prevent it from collapsing upon itself.  The result was a structure that seemed to rise majestically without any visible means of support.  This single aesthetic decision ushered in the Renaissance and marked the end to the Gothic age.

A concept model was in hand, but no one actually knew how to build it.  So a structural design competition was held in August 1418, and by the following month the project was granted to a goldsmith and clockmaker, Filippo Brunelleschi.  Soon named the Capomaestro of the project, or architect-in-chief, Brunelleschi solved the biggest technological challenges to the dome’s construction.  

An ingenious designer, engineer, and inventor, Brunelleschi came up with a number of supporting devices and concepts that were instrumental in the dome’s construction.  Facing the primary challenge of transporting 70 million tons of building materials and lifting them several hundred feet above the ground, he invented an ox-hoist that was assembled on the cathedral floor.  With his machine, one ox could raise a load of 1,000 pounds to a height of 200 feet in approximately thirteen minutes.

Brunelleschi also solved the problem of how to build the dome without wooden centering supports.  He is credited with inventing linear perspective, and he holds the first-ever patent for invention for a ship used to transport building materials up the river Arno, a precursor to today’s paddleboats.

Repeatedly subjected to public scrutiny, doubt, and even jailed by his enemies at one point, his career was marked by breakthroughs and setbacks.  He was engaged in a bitter rivalry with his lifelong competitor, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and was constantly entering competitions to prove his worth.  His final competition reward was for the lantern that tops the dome.  The cathedral was finally completed with the placing of the copper ball atop the lantern in 1496, over 80 years after the competition for the dome was called in 1413, and 200 years after construction had started on the main basilica.

Ross King’s book goes into intricate detail of the structural and engineering feats by Brunelleschi, but is nonetheless a compelling story of human dedication, political posturing, and rival competition during a time of plague and war.  The book instills a real appreciation for the Duomo - just as much an artistic achievement as it was a structural one – and for the Master Architect who made it all happen.

Salvage Secrets On Sale Now

Salvage Secrets: Transforming Reclaimed Materials into Design Concepts is the new book by our friend and colleague Joanne Palmisano, with photography by Susan Teare.  The book beautifully showcases vintage, antique, or simply discarded items that are rediscovered and brought back to life in creative and unexpected ways.  It is a wonderful treasure hunt of unique, salvaged materials, and a practical resource for getting you started on your own design project.

We are always happy to work with Joanne, who frequently acts as a designer and marketing consultant for our Interiors department, and Susan Teare, who we often have photograph our own projects.

Here’s a blurb from the new book, published by W.W.Norton & Company, in advance of its release:

Today we all want to build and renovate our homes with sustainability in mind, so it’s no surprise that “salvage”—reusing old building materials and other recycled goods—is an increasingly popular technique, both for its environmentally friendly functionality and its unique design aesthetic...

Salvage Secrets is a resource you won’t want to be without on your search. Here, veteran salvager and designer Joanne Palmisano equips you with a practical guide and conducts you on a stunning visual tour of the interior design possibilities using a range of rescued materials...

With over 150 color photographs and sketches, as well as a comprehensive listing of architects, designers, and other specialty salvage resources for your hunt, you’ll be ready to visit warehouses, recycling centers, antique shops, and some unique locations in search of the perfect salvaged treasure for your home design.

Joanne Palmisano is an award-winning designer and marketing consultant for Peregrine Design/Build and TruexCullins Architecture and Interior Design in Burlington, Vermont. She is a freelance writer and scouts homes and gardens for stylists of national magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Country Gardens, Renovation Style, and Country Living.

Susan Teare is an architectural photographer and has contributed to publications such as Ski Magazine, Fine Homebuilding, Better Homes and Gardens, Custom Home Magazine, Vermont Magazine, and Timber Home Living.

And our own Kim Deetjen makes a cameo appearance on the back cover to offer her endorsement:

“Drawing on her personal experience as well as advice from a posse of experts, Joanne Palmisano shows us that being sensitive to the environment does not mean sacrificing style or good design. Recycled, reclaimed, and salvaged materials and furnishings can be chic, beautiful, and sustainable. Salvage Secrets is a must—an innovative design resource filled with unique and affordable ideas.” —Kim Deetjen, ASID, principal, TruexCullins Interiors

The book will be released on September 12th, but you can reserve your copy now at Amazon.com and other online retailers.  You can also keep up with Joanne and all her salvaging adventures on her Salvage Secrets blog.