''Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design'' is a 2013 book written by the Canadian author Charles Montgomery.

Overview

Gathering insights from the disciplines of psychology, neuroscience, urban planning and Montgomery’s own social experiments, the book makes the case that the manner in which we build our cities alters the way in which we feel, think, and behave as individuals and as a society. Montgomery argues that the happy city, the green city, and the low-carbon city are the same place, and we can all help build it. Montgomery states that the book is about "seeing our city streets, hearts, and mobility systems as emotional infrastructure that can make or break the health or happiness of our citizens." From Stockton, California to Bogotá, Colombia, Montgomery discusses the urban challenges cities face and the innovative solutions being implemented all over the world to empower communities. The book was a Finalist for the Shaughnessy Bishop-Cohen Prize for Political Writing and Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction, and a Winner of the Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Awards. It was also a shortlisted nominee for the 2014

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer. Canada's most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner re ...

. The success of the book led Charles Montgomery to found the consulting firm, Happy Cities, which seeks to turn the lessons of the book into action by offering urban planning, design, and research consulting services to municipalities.

Content

The book contains 13 chapters and an epilogue: #The Mayor of Happy #The City has Always Been a Happiness Project #The (Broken) Social Scene #How We Got Here #Getting it Wrong #How to be Closer #Convivialities #Mobilicities I: How Moving Feels, and Why It Does Not Feel Better #Mobilicities II: Freedom #Who Is The City For? #Everything Is Connected to Everything Else #Retrofitting Sprawl #Save Your City, Save Yourself

References

{{reflist

External links

Review of ''Happy City''
at the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at

Urban Land Institute The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a nonprofit research and education organization with regional offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London. ULI advocates progressive development, conducting research, and education in topics such as ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, an ...

Review of ''Happy City''
at Livablecities.org
Review of ''Happy City''
at The Atlantic Cities Books about urbanism 2013 non-fiction books Canadian non-fiction books Farrar, Straus and Giroux books