Additional
Reading Questions
I.
Mike Davis, City
of
II. Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness: excerpt (HCC Reader, pp. 106-113)
III. William J. Mitchell, “Poison Ivy” (HCC Reader, pp. 114-116)
IV. Malcolm Gladwell, “Designs for Working” (HCC Reader, pp. 117-18)
Discussion Questions
1. Use one of these short readings to analyze a built environment that you navigate everyday (your dorm; the UCI campus; your home neighborhood; a shopping center; a work environment.) Why did you choose the text you did to analyze this particular space?
2. Malcolm Gladwell applies Jane Jacob’s ideas about the successful sidewalk to a very different kind of space: the large office environment. Can you apply Jane Jacobs to some other environment (your dorm, the UCI student center, a bookstore, a large restaurant or club, etc.)?
3. Write a counter-argument to Mike Davis using an example
of what you see as a successful public space in
4. Alain de Botton compares buildings to animals and people. Choose a building you either love or hate and write a similar comparison. What vision of happiness or the good life does this building try to communicate?