A wide-ranging exploration of architecture and innovation, featuring floating foundations, incorporating nature into school design, how temperature can impact our perception of happiness at work, the balance between community and privacy (and choice), and the challenges of living on Mars, among other topics. 

Title: The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness

Author: Emily Anthes

Genre: Nonfiction; Popular Science; Psychology of Daily Life; Architecture

Read Great Things 2021 Categories: A book about or set in space [there’s a chapter on architecture on Mars!]; A book recommended by a Durham Tech Librarian; Choose your own category [A book about places and spaces…or something like that]

This book was read by Meredith Lewis, the (mostly) Orange County Campus Librarian. 

Why did you choose to read this book?

Well, the cover, illustrated by Rose Wong, is very cool.

After the past year and a half of life spent mostly indoors in my own home, it seemed like an interesting topic. I feel the need to be honest and admit that I had this book for months before I finished it– it’s almost like I forgot how to read nonfiction, so that was an interesting experience. 

What did you like about it? 

It’s strength was also what took me a while to get into it– there are a lot of topics covered in this book (each chapter focuses on a different topic related to indoor living and design) and they focus both on social and psychological issues impacted by and related to architectural design. The first few chapters didn’t really grab me as much as the later topics, but once I got going, I really enjoyed it. Did you know that there are architects designing buoyant foundations to help houses withstand flooding without having to use stilts? And that other office conditions (privacy, temperature, noise) can change our perception of the overall “health” of a space? 

Chapters on school design and mixing the ideal with the actual, real-world demands on a public school space, smart homes that could be used to monitor health, and solitary confinement were thought-provoking, too. Anthes does a good job of making sure to address the privacy and other issues related to many of these “space” issues, including the ethics of building on Mars or the Moon. 

Who would you recommend this book to?

I might recommend this to people who like popular science books by authors like Mary Roach. 

Did it remind you of any other books?

For anyone who might be interested in a long microhistory of indoor space focused around the rooms of a house, it reminded me of [what I finished of] At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson.

For folks interested in living on Mars or living off Earth, the last chapter in this book seems to indicate that The Martian by Andy Weir is pretty accurate.