Alain de Botton aims to build on happiness
Ed Dorrell and Maev Kennedy
Thursday July 6, 2006
The Guardian
Happiness may soon be built within commuting distance of London:
honey-coloured limestone tiles may well feature; fibreglass Georgian
columns certainly will not. The philosopher Alain de Botton, author of a
study of the relationship between architecture, beauty and human
happiness, which became one of the year's more surprising bestsellers,
is set to express his beliefs in bricks and mortar.
The author of The Architecture of Happiness has denounced most house
building in Britain as "the Turkey Twizzlers of architecture".
He recently wrote: "The time is ripe for an enlightened developer to
turn over a swath of land to a team of talented architects without
worrying too much about impressing the stock market and let their work
proceed under the high profile glare of cameras."
Today in AJ magazine, the architect's bible, he is unmasked as that
enlightened developer. He is setting up a development company, and
looking for a five acre (2.023 hectare) plot within reach of London,
with outline planning permission.
De Botton then intends to organise a competition to find a designer. He
told AJ that after his book and television series, he was challenged by
many people to stop commenting and start doing something about
soul-sapping housing. Another book and television series are planned to
monitor the experiment, which he hopes will end with the new houses
auctioned on camera to real home-seekers.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1813783,00.htmla