This book is a collection of thoughts on homes and cities. The book covers a range of topics, but here are a few that were highlights for me.
I fell out of love with marketing after working in it for a good part of my career. One of the chapters spelled out a discomfort that I head, where while we often blame the people designing cities and the spaces themselves, sales and marketing had huge influence on what people desire. For example, furniture stores sell sets to increase sales volumes, which leads to bedrooms being crammed, which leads to people looking for larger homes.
Another chapter links healthy and affordable housing to our societal valutes. That is to say that new and better social values are perhaps what could lead to a better housing and quality of life as a whole.
My favourite chapter talks about a store owner that built their house on the roof of the commercial building. To me, this captures both an effective use of space, and the dream of living a life of mixed vocation through mixed use of space.
The last chapter of the book speaks about housing and aging, and offers some great thoughts and ideas on alternative arrangements that can lead to a healthier and more desireable living for both our aging relatives and our future selves. These include ideas around sharing costs, alternative arrangement of living friends, and pushing further shared amenties (like guest spaces for visiting relatives).