Building Paradise：Episodes in Paradisiacal Thinking

A sweeping historical study, Building Paradise, seeks to construct a garden ethic for the design arts. It is an ethic predicated on the idea that-with our recent ecological and biological insights-we can build more intelligently and more creatively than the status quo of current design practices. The paradisiacal instinct is the spirit behind every artistic impulse.

From its theological origins to the present, the idea of paradise, the garden as place of peace, beauty, and happiness, has acquired numerous meanings related to play, art, and the building instinct. The idea of paradise manifests itself in various forms. It was a motif expounded in the earliest cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley, and it later became a dominant feature of Buddhist, Judaic-Christian, and Islamic practices.

It informed Graeco-Roman mythologies and the design of a Japanese garden, was a motivation for the Renaissance, and was complicit in visions of a New Arcadia within the landscapes of the Americas. This book takes a biophilic approach to our built and urban environments and draws upon the major advances of the human sciences in the last few decades to center design squarely on human needs and aspirations. These measures are expressed through the mounting examples presented throughout the text.

Building Paradise examines how the built environment shapes both the culture and outlook of a people. Written for students and academics within architecture and all related fields, this book focuses on the efforts to build paradise in a material way.