What Adults Don't Know About Architecture: Inspiring young minds to build a more beautiful world

by The School of Life, Alain de Botton (Editor)

Overview

This insightful title explores children’s relationship with and understanding of architecture and its impact on their world.

Children are rarely introduced properly to architecture, but there are in fact few subjects more important—because the quality of the architecture that surrounds us has such an impact on our mood and sense of well-being.

The bitter truth is that in modern times we’ve built a world that’s far too often ugly or charmless—and we’ve done so because very few people ever feel they have the right to comment on what gets built around them. This is a chance for the next generation to develop the tools to talk about architecture with confidence, knowledge, and passion. It tells us about what a satisfying building is, what makes a street enticing (or not), why some cities are charming and others repel us—and how we might build going forward in a way that will reliably delight and uplift us.

This engaging guide is designed to help children (and their favorite adults) to understand how buildings work and how we might create the better looking world we all crave and deserve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912891634
Publisher:	The School of Life
Publication date:	09/17/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	33 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	8 - 14 Years

About the Author

The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment. The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.

The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 5 million YouTube subscribers, 343,000 Facebook followers, 183,000 Instagram followers and 160,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.

Read an Excerpt

iv. Why are so many places ugly?

A lot of buildings and places are rather ugly. They’re like unkind people, and they’re sending unfriendly messages to us. So why are there so many of them?

If you ask an adult why there are so many places in the world that are ugly, they might say: ‘Because it costs too much to make nice places.’

It sounds like a very sensible answer. Quite often, good things do cost a lot. Not everyone can have a really great car because great cars cost so much money. Luxury hotels are very nice, but not everyone can stay in them because the prices are so high. So maybe it is the same with architecture. Maybe it just is that lovely buildings cost too much, so we can’t afford to have very many of them.

But with architecture this isn’t really a very good answer. Actually, some of the most attractive buildings were made by people who didn't have much money at all. The blue and white street in Greece we were looking at before was originally built for quite poor people to live in. It was cheap housing, but it was also really nice. You can see it this way, too: Imagine you give two people the same number of plastic bricks and ask them to make a little house.

One person might make something brilliant and the other person might make something horrible. The difference isn’t to do with how many bricks they used but with how nice their ideas were. Nicer ideas don’t cost more money.

Or an adult might say: ‘The lovely places are lovely because they are old. The ugly places are ugly because they are new. There's nothing we can do about that except wait. Maybe in 2235 people will think that our busy road lined with tower blocks and our shopping centres are very beautiful and they’ll make special trips just to visit them.’

But this isn’t a good answer either. It’s saying that a new building or street or part of a city just can’t be beautiful until many years have passed – and that doesn’t make sense. That would be like saying it’s impossible to make a beautiful pair of shoes or a beautiful car or write a beautiful song these days – but obviously we can do these things. Why should it only be nice buildings that we can’t make now? And anyway, as we’ll see, there are plenty of really wonderful modern streets and buildings.

We think the answer is very different.

We think there are so many ugly places in the world because of mistaken ideas. The difference between nice places and ugly places isn’t to do with how much they cost or when they were built. It’s to do with how people think about architecture.

That’s what this book is all about. Together we’re going to be looking for good ideas about how to build well. We want to understand which ideas lead to amazing buildings and beautiful places. Each of the chapters in this book explores one big, important – and good – idea for architecture. We’ll get to all the good ideas quite soon, but first we’re going to look at one very big idea mistake that leads to ugly streets and cities. It’s this: We think we can’t say what beauty is.

Maybe it’s not obvious why this is such a disaster. So we’re going to take a bit of time to see why it is…

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
i. You are an architect!
ii. Why is architecture important?
iii. How buildings are like people
iv. Why are so many places ugly?
v. What is beauty?
vi. The recipe for good architecture
II. How to Build a Beautiful City
i. Make your city interesting
ii. Become a team manager
iii. Make things the right size
iv. Use nice materials
v. Develop a local style
vi. Make the city lively
vii. Repetition is good
III. Conclusion
i. Why are houses so expensive?
ii. Architecture and democracy

Editorial Reviews

"These two books will help to give children a sense of what the point of architecture and art really are—in a way that will imbue them with a genuine lifelong interest in the subjects" –Alain de Botton

"This innovative guide teaches the basic principles of architecture in a relatable style associating concepts with everyday things, like a favorite sports team or creating a recipe. With photography and artwork throughout referencing a wide range of styles from all over the world … this is a clever start to a series that will encourage eager minds to look more deeply." – Claire Atherfold, Readings State Library

"Very highly recommended, "What Adults Don't Know About Architecture" is engaging and informative guide is designed to help children ages 9-15 (and their favorite adults!) to understand how buildings work and how we might create the better looking world we all crave and deserve." – Midwest Book Review

***What readers are saying:***

"A good read for anyone with an interest in architecture or studying architecture, and even new students that want a lighter read than that of a textbook." – Goodreads review

"The School of Life is always thought provoking and creates a new perspective for me. While I am an adult reader, I enjoyed this book as it will cause me to ask questions about architecture that I had not previously considered - why are certain areas appealing and others not." – Goodreads review

From the Publisher