Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

Happy City is the story of how the solutions to this century's problems - from climate change to overpopulation - lie in unlocking the secrets to great city living

Why are some cities a joy to live in, and others chronically miserable? As award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery reveals, the answers lie in the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness.

Journeying to dozens of cities - from Atlanta to Bogotá to Vancouver - he talks to the new champions of the happy city to discover the progressive movements already transforming people's lives. He meets the visionary Colombian mayor who used a "sexy" bus to ease status anxiety; a Danish architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan towns to modern-day Copenhagen; the activist who turned Paris's urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have transformed their own lives by hacking the design of their neighbourhoods. In these stories, and in the fascinating realm of urban experimentation, Happy City finds new insights for better living.

From how saying hello to neighbours is just as important to your mental health as contact with close friends and family, to how gardens make us kinder, and how simple changes in road design can alter the hormonal state of commuters, Happy City shows that simple changes can make all the difference. The message is as surprising as it is hopeful: the green city, the low-carbon city and the happy city are the same place, and we can all help build it.

Charles Montgomery is a journalist and urban experimentalist from Vancouver, Canada. His writings on urban planning, psychology, culture, and history have appeared in magazines and journals on three continents. He is the author of two previous books, and is a member of the BMW Guggenheim Lab team.