Book #008 - The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton

With this entertaining and stimulating book, de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life) examines the ways architecture speaks to us, evoking associations that, if we are alive to them, can put us in touch with our true selves and influence how we conduct our lives.

Because of this, he contends, it's the architect's task to design buildings that contribute to happiness by embodying ennobling values.




While he makes no claim to be able to define true beauty in architecture, he suggests some of the virtues a building should have (illustrated by pictures on almost every spread): order combined with complexity; balance between contrasting elements; elegance that appears effortless; a coherent relationship among the parts; and self-knowledge, which entails an understanding of human psychology, something that architects all too often overlook.

To underscore his argument, de Botton includes many apt examples of buildings that either incorporate or ignore these qualities, discussing them in ways that make obvious their virtues or failings.

The strength of his book is that it encourages us to open our eyes and really look at the buildings in which we live and work. A three-part series of the same title will air on PBS this fall. (Oct. 3)

Book #007 - Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas

Product Description
Since its original publication in 1978, Delirious New York has attained mythic status. Back in print in a newly designed edition, this influential cultural, architectural, and social history of New York is even more popular, selling out its first printing on publication. Rem Koolhaas's celebration and analysis of New York depicts the city as a metaphor for the incredible variety of human behavior. At the end of the nineteenth century, population, information, and technology explosions made Manhattan a laboratory for the invention and testing of a metropolitan lifestyle -- "the culture of congestion" -- and its architecture.

"Manhattan," he writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta Stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Koolhaas interprets and reinterprets the dynamic relationship between architecture and culture in a number of telling episodes of New York's history, including the imposition of the Manhattan grid, the creation of Coney Island, and the development of the skyscraper. Delirious New York is also packed with intriguing and fun facts and illustrated with witty watercolors and quirky archival drawings, photographs, postcards, and maps. The spirit of this visionary investigation of Manhattan equals the energy of the city itself.

Amazon.com Review
In this fanciful volume, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.), both analyzes and celebrates New York City. By suggesting the city as the site for an infinite variety of human activities and events--both real and imagined--the essence of the metropolitan lifestyle, its "culture of congestion" and its architecture are revealed in a brilliant new light. "Manhattan," Koolhaas writes, "is the 20th century's Rosetta stone . . . occupied by architectural mutations (Central Park, the Skyscraper), utopian fragments (Rockefeller Center, the U.N. Building), and irrational phenomena (Radio City Music Hall)." Filled with fascinating facts, as well as photographs, postcards, maps, watercolors, and drawings, the vibrancy of Koolhaas's poignant exploration of Gotham equals the heady, frenetic energy of the city itself. Anyone who loves New York will want to own this book.

Booklist of Architect Hyo-Sang Seung

프랑스 고졸 자격 시험문제

프랑스 고졸 자격 시험문제
1장 인간(Human)

질문1-스스로 의식하지 못하는 행복이 가능한가?
질문2-꿈은 필요한가?
질문3-과거에서 벗어날 수 있다면 우리는 자유로운 존재가 될 수 있을까?
질문4-지금의 나는 내 과거의 총합인가?
질문5-관용의 정신에도 비관용이 내포되어 있는가?
질문6-사랑이 의무일 수 있는가?
질문7-행복은 단지 한순간 스치고 지나가는 것인가?
질문8-타인을 존경한다는 것은 일체의 열정을 배제한다는 것을 뜻하는가?
질문9-죽음은 인간에게서 일체의 존재 의미를 박탈해 가는가?
질문10-우리는 자기 자신에게 거짓말을 할 수 있나?
질문11-행복은 인간에게 도달 불가능한 것인가?

2장 인문학(Humanities)

질문1-우리가 하고 있는 말에는 우리 자신이 의식하고있는 것만이 담기는가?
질문2-철학이 세상을 바꿀 수 있는가?
질문3-철학자는 과학자에게 어떤 도움을 줄 수 있는가?
질문4-역사가는 객관적일 수 있는가?
질문5-역사학자가 기억력만 의존해도 좋은가?
질문6-역사는 인간에게 오는 것인가 아니면 인간에 의해 오는 것인가?
질문7-감각을 믿을 수 있는가?
질문8-재화만이 교환의 대상이 될 수 있는가?
질문9-인문학은 인간을 예견 가능한 존재로 파악하는가?
질문10-인류가 한 가지 언어만을 말하는 것은 바람직한가?

3장 예술(Arts)

질문1-예술 작품은 반드시 아름다운가?
질문2-예술없이 아름다움에 대하여 말할 수 있는가?
질문3-예술 작품의 복재는 그 작품에 해를 끼치는 일인가?
질문4-예술 작품은 모두 인간에 대해 이야기 하고 있는가?
질문5-예술이 인간과 현실과의 관계를 변화시킬 수 있는가?

4장 과학(Sciences)

질문1-생물학적 지식은 일체의 유기체를 기계로만 여기기를 요구하는가?
질문2-우리는 과학적으로 증명된 것만을 진리로 받아들여야 하는가?
질문3-계산, 그것은 사유한다는 것을 말하는 것인가?
질문4-무의식에 대한 과학은 가능한가?
질문5-오류는 진리를 발견하는 과정에서 어떤 역할을 하는가?
질문6-이론의 가치는 실제적 효용가치에 따라 가늠되는가?
질문7-과학의 용도는 어디에 있는가?
질문8-현실이 수학적 법칙에 따른다고 할 수 있는가?
질문9-기술이 인간조건을 바꿀 수 있는가?
질문10-지식은 종교적인 것이든 비종교적인 것이든 일체의 믿음을 배제하는가?
질문11-자연을 모델로 삼는 것이 어느 분야에서 가장 적합한가?

5장 정치와 권리(Politics&Rights)

질문1-권리를 수호한다는 것과 이익을 옹호한다는 것은 같은 뜻인가?
질문2-자유는 주어지는 것인가 아니면 싸워서 획득해야 하는 것인가?
질문3-법에 복종하지 않는 행동도 이성적인 행동일 수 있을까?
질문4-여론이 정권을 이끌 수 있는가?
질문5-의무를 다하지 않고도 권리를 행사할 수 있는가?
질문6-노동은 욕구 충족의 수단에 불구한가?
질문7- 정의의 요구와 자유의 요구는 구별될 수 있는가?
질문8-노동은 도덕적 가치를 지니는가?
질문9-자유를 두려워해야 하나?
질문10-유토피아는 한낱 꿈일 뿐인가?
질문11-국가는 개인의 적인가?
질문12-어디에서 정신의 자유를 알아차릴 수 있나?
질문13-권력 남용은 불가피한 것인가?
질문14-다름은 곧 불평등을 의미하는 것인가?
질문15-노동은 종속적일 따름인가?
질문16-평화와 불의가 함께 갈 수 있나?

6장 윤리(Ethics)

질문1-도덕적으로 행동한다는 것은 반드시 자신의 욕망과 싸운다는 것을 뜻하는가 ?
질문2-우리는 좋다고 하는 것만을 바라는가?
질문3-의무를 다하는 것만으로 충분한가?
질문4-무엇을 비인간적인 행위라고 하는가?
질문5-일시적이고 순간적인 것에도 가치가 존재하는가?
질문6-무엇이 내 안에서 어떤 행동을 해야 할 지를 말해 주는가?
질문7-우리는 정념을 찬양할 수 있는가?
질문8-종교적 믿음을 가지는 것은 이성을 포기한다는 것을 뜻하는가?
질문9-정열은 우리의 의무 이행을 방해하는가?
질문10-진실에 저항할 수 있는가?
질문11-진리가 우리 마음을 불편하게 할 때 진리 대신 우리에게 위안을 주는 환상을 좇아도 좋은가?

New Urbanism - Wikipedia

New Urbanism is an urban design movement that arose in the United States in the early 1980s. Its goal is to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable.
A walk street in Venice, California, built around 1905.

New Urbanism can include (neo)traditional neighborhood design, transit-oriented development, and New Pedestrianism. New Urbanism is the re-invention of the old urbanism, commonly seen before the advent of the automobile age, while New Pedestrianism is a further elaboration of less common, pedestrian-oriented, urban design experiments that date to the early 20th century.

Book #006 - Thermal Delight in Architecture: Lisa Heschong

Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design.

Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed—reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience.

As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas.

Lisa Heschong earned a degree in Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and once in Architecture from MIT.