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  • Published: 18 April 2024
  • ISBN: 9781802061024
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208

Philosophy of the Home

Domestic Space and Happiness




A searching account of the ethics and aesthetics of the home: the place that is most important in determining human happiness

A bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom - are these rooms all that make a home? Not at all, argues Emanuele Coccia. The buildings we inhabit are of immense psychological and cultural significance. They play a decisive role in human flourishing and, for hundreds of years, their walls and walkways, windows and doorways have guided our relationships with others and with ourselves. They reflect and reinforce social inequalities; they allow us to celebrate and cherish those we love. They are the places of return that allow us to venture out into the world.

In this intimate, elegantly argued account, Coccia shows how the architecture of home has shaped, and continues to shape, our psyches and our societies, before then masterfully leading us towards a more creative, ecological way of dwelling in the world.

  • Published: 18 April 2024
  • ISBN: 9781802061024
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208

Praise for Philosophy of the Home

An insightful book that illuminates the rooms you live in and makes you understand what they mean

la Repubblica

A hymn of praise for the home

Die Presse

A precious guide … There is so much more at stake than the material quality of a place for living … For us human beings, the house represents the universe

Chris Dercon

I have been waiting for Philosophy of the Home. Coccia’s reflections take you through the complexity of the notion of home – not merely as a place, but as a space of philosophy, history, politics, and art

Hans Ulrich Obrist

I absolutely DEVOURED this book and have been recommending it to every architect and academic I know

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer