Friday, April 25, 2008

City of Happiness


Felicity (n):
happiness: state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy

“What if a city is built on a foundation of happiness?” This was the question that drove the FeliCity workshop project, which was conducted at the University of Edinburgh, by Paskal A., David Lee and Adib Jalal.

Instead of adopting usual city planning methods, the FeliCity project is based on the idea of developing a poly-centric urban region based on the Gross National Happiness concept. It proposes that the key strategy in developing an emotional landscape of the region of Belt 1 is to regulate the levels of happiness so as to maintain a state of ‘emotional equilibrium’ across it. This would enable each city in the belt to develop at its maximum potential with their high happiness indices.

The project proposes that the M8 be replaced by a new transport system, named Plutchik2, which other than being a mass rapid transit system is also a means to regulate the emotions of commuters from one city to another. Thus, through regulating and transferring the emotional energy of happiness from one city to another, this ideal state can be achieved.

For more information, click here.

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