The Canadian Centre for Architecture’s (CCA) exhibition Our Happy Life is a three-act study on the tactics used to legitimize new spatial models founded on the ideology of happiness; including a dissection of the political project behind methods of city data collection and application, an investigation of the ?emotionalization? of the real estate market, and a demystification of the idea of social space. Our Happy Life is a narrative anti-manual which explores and interprets recent paradigms that are shaping our present perception of place, giving new identity to the materials of the private space of our homes, reconceiving our working environments, and transforming development itself through the planning of our cities.
Maija Holma, photographer. Stairwell, Hansaviertel Apartment House, Berlin, Germany, 2012. Alvar Aalto, architect How do we measure the quality of our lives" What is the data behind happiness" Over the last decade, lists of indicators, indices, and rankings, commissioned and produced by public and private entities alike, have changed how we perceive and design the spaces we inhabit. Key to the development of these lists was Nicolas Sarkozy?s 2008 formation of a committee to rethink GDP as a measure of social progress and David Cameron?s 2010 initiative to collect national statistics on well-being. Both of these projects can be seen as early markers of a new Happiness Agenda.
At a global scale, the consequences of this agenda include a redefin...