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.""Streets Blog Denver". October 7, 2016. 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."Happy City: The book". It was also a shortlisted nominee for the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction."Hilary Weston Prize 2014: The shortlist revealed!". CBC Books, September 17, 2014.
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
External links Review of Happy City at the New York Times Review of Happy City at The Guardian Review of Happy City at Urban Land Institute Review of Happy City at The Toronto Star Review of Happy City at Vancouver Sun Review of Happy City at Bloomberg Businessweek Review of Happy City at Columbia Journalism Review Review of Happy City at Livablecities.org Review of Happy City at The Atlantic Cities