Missing Pieces

I just finished Alain de Botton's book, "The Architecture of Happiness". Meant for a general audience, the books reads in a smooth arc and touches nicely on most of the current themes concerning our interactions with the built environment. I especially like de Botton's- a philosopher by trade- focus on the way our choices are predicated somewhat on our unfilled desires and our projected insecurities. Also, the streetspace is handled nicely and examples throughout the book are illustrative despite his amateur status regarding this subject. I highly recommend it.

He has also now created a program of building 5 vacation homes for rent by talented architects in England: 'He said his purpose was "to help people get over the dichotomy that modernism equals awful and antiquated equals great".' (from this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/09/alain-de-botton-modernist-houses )

Here is link to rental site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/09/alain-de-botton-modernist-houses