architecture of happiness

Our buildings, and the objects we fill with them, affect us more profoundly than we might think. De Botton suggests that it is architecture's task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be. He considers how our private homes and public edifices, from those of Andrea Palladio to those of Le Corbusier and Norman Foster, influence how we feel, as well as how architects could build in ways that would increase our chances of happiness.