A leading critic examines the connections between obesity and architecture, unchecked sprawl and unchecked appetites, and other forms of insatiability that are hurting our planet and bodies.
Welcome to Blubberland―a world of quadruple-garaged mansions, vast malls, gated communities, stretch limos, and posh resorts. Blubberland is a place, but it is also a state of mind: we expect to be happy (trophy house, SUV in the driveway, home entertainment system, pension fund, cosmetic surgery), but in fact we've grown increasingly bloated, bored, and miserable. In Blubberland, award-winning critic Elizabeth Farrelly looks at our “superfluous superfluity,” our huge eco-footprint, and asks why we find it so hard to abandon habits we know to be destructive. Why can't we build human-scale cities, design meaningful public spaces, eat reasonable meals, and stop assaulting nature? Farrelly, trained as an architect, begins this story with architecture, urban sprawl, and housing, but she does not end there. She also looks at “affluenza,” childhood asthma, diabetes, addiction, beauty, ugliness, narcissism, climate change, mega-churches, big box retailers, sustainability, depression, anorexia, and the links that collect all of these issues under the same roof―the roof, as it were, of the McMansion. As “big” becomes more and more pervasive, and success is seen in increasingly measurable and material terms, the goal of happiness jeopardizes our survival. Blubberland is a smart, thoughtful, and stylish argument for turning things around.

Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness

Business & Money

Farrelly, Elizabeth

Economics

The MIT Press

An up-to-date account of the work of John McAslan + Partners, one of Britain’s most respected and dynamic architectural practices. 
Making Architecture provides an up-to-date account of the work of John McAslan + Partners, one of Britain’s most respected architectural practices, and analyzes the culture of a studio that has made a remarkable contribution to architecture, place-making, and the lives of individuals for four decades. 
A series of thematic chapters includes fully illustrated descriptionsof many recent and ongoing international projects, from Central and Waterloo stations in Sydney and ten new stations for Delhi Metro to the transformation of King’s Cross station in London; from the sensitive restoration of the Modern Movement De La Warr Pavilion in the UK tothe new Doha Mosque and Msheireb Museums in Qatar. It also includes the pioneering initiatives for which the McAslan studio has become well known and that underline the practice’s humanity: the urgent restoration of the Iron Market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the devastating earthquake in 2010; the Hidden Homelessness initiative, begun in 2017; the N17 project that provided a pop-up design studio in Tottenham, London, with the aim of inspiring young people to become engaged in the regeneration of their community; and many others. 
Edited by Chris Foges, with a foreword by Kenneth Frampton andan introduction by Alan Powers, and with contributions by architectural specialists, this beautifully designed book offers the key to understanding the development and philosophy of one of the world’s most socially engaged architectural practices. 540 color illustrations

Making Architecture: The Work of John McAslan + Partners

Arts & Photography

Powell, Kenneth

Mubark, Marwa El

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

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Books by Farrelly, Elizabeth