WHEN EMOTION BECOMES ARCHITECTURE: ‘OUR HAPPY LIFE’
The exhibition ‘Our Happy Life’, held in 2019 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), points to ‘happiness’ as a new focus and concern for today’s architecture. Happiness, which used to be considered a very personal feeling and experience, now functions as part of the logic of the market economy, an ideology, and as a standard measurement within urban and national rankings. Two years later, in 2021, the exhibition opened at the Seoul Hall of Urbanism & Architecture (Seoul HOUR) as an international exchange exhibition. How does architecture affect happiness and how does happiness affect architecture? SPACE spoke with the three curators of the exhibition: Francesco Garutti and Irene Chin of CCA and Kim Hyoeun of Seoul HOUR.
Choi Eunhwa (Choi): The exhibition ‘Our Happy Life’ was first held in 2019 at the CCA. It suggested that what architecture and the city should pay attention to now is no longer the experiment with form or type, but to emotional responses and the happiness of individuals and collectives. How did you start the exhibition?
The founder of CCA, Phyllis Lambert said ‘We’re not a museum that puts things out and says, “This is architecture”. We try to make people think.’ When CCA initiates the project, we often begin by exploring cultural transformations and looking for moments of friction. We identify what we
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