Monday FILM NIGHT: Alain de Botton’s The Perfect Home (2006)

On Monday, April 7th, at 6pm in the Rosenthal Lecture Room at the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s offices, Alain de Botton’s The Perfect Home (2006) will be shown.  The Perfect Home is a documentary-essay film based on the book The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton.

The showing is FREE to all.  However, only reserved seating is available.  Those who wish to attend must call 561.832.0731, ext. 110 to reserve a seat.  Email responses are not accepted.

In it, Alain de Botton explores the importance of innovative architecture for homes. He offers criticism of modern developments that are built in an idealized fake heritage style, which he refers to as pastiche. He searches for answers to our housing crisis, and comes up with some suggestions for the perfect home: a kind of architecture that can make us happy. Suggesting that most new houses are built in appalling taste, he argues we urgently need to wake up to the merits of good design. He focuses on the point that make-over shows merely circle around superficially: that our environments determine how we feel.

He first looks at how the current status quo came about where builders are typically building houses with architectural styles harking back to preindustrial eras such as mock Tudor, neo-Georgian and mock country cottage façades. Then he examines what defines a building's beauty.

Next, he approaches how the current situation could be improved, with de Botton's preferred option being that buildings' architecture should reflect the era in which they are built. To this end, he favors examples of more contemporary designs being used in Japan and the Netherlands as a suggested alternative. Most of all, he argues for houses that help us to see the world as a place to feel at home in, rather than to fear.

The Foundation’s Executive Director Alexander C. Ives will present a short introduction, linking the film with the causes and work of the Preservation Foundation.

  

The showing will begin at 6pm.

  

Please note, doors lock at 6:15pm.

Refreshments will be provided.

  

As with all events, the Preservation Foundation expects attendees to act respectfully.  We reserve the right to turn away anyone.