Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism

Description

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. Contributors Will Davies, Daniel Fujiwara, Simon Fujiwara, Ingo Niermann, Deane Simpson, Mirko Zardini This volume is published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by and presented at the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal from May 8, 2019 to October 13, 2019.

Francesco Garutti is a contemporary art and architecture curator and editor and Curator at the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal. Francesco Garutti is a contemporary art and architecture curator and editor and Curator at the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal. Francesco Garutti is a contemporary art and architecture curator and editor and Curator at the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal. Francesco Garutti is a contemporary art and architecture curator and editor and Curator at the Canadian Centre of Architecture in Montreal. Mirko Zardini (born 1955) is the current Director and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal, Quebec. Ingo Niermann is a writer and the editor of the Solution Series. His recent publications include Burial of the White Man(with Erik Niedling) andSolution 275-294- Communists Anonymous (edited with Joshua Simon). Based on his novelSolution 257- Complete Love, Niermann initiated the Army of Love, a project that tests and promotes a just redistribution of sensual love.