Humanize: a Maker's Guide to Designing Our Cities by Thomas Heatherwick is a very readable treatise on how to lay out our shared spaces where nature does not dominate the surroundings. Humanize is a plea to create spaces that are visually interesting and deep with public areas that encourage human interactions.

Heatherwick sees much of the last century's buildings as "boring", a word he uses to describe buildings with a lack of interest to the passerby. Flat-fronted buildings with flat windows are sometimes preferred by clients because they are less expensive to build, but Heatherwick claims they cost society by being unnoticeable. The modern era has stripped as many of the details of past times as possible. A person can take in the entire building without needing to slow down or stop. And to him, herein lies the problem.

His theory goes like this, people do not stop to consider the edifice, they keep moving. They do not interact with other passersby or neighbors and do not become acquainted with other people who live sometimes in the same building. This creates space that separates us as humans instead of becoming neighbors.

And then there is the problem of tearing boring buildings down and putting up more featureless buildings. This leads to more carbon being put into the air than the entire airline industry worldwide. And the problem is not relieved by the new buildings.

The book is full of photos and other illustrations to make this point starting with the early 20th century's Spanish architect and designer Antoni Gaudi who was responsible for Casa Mila and Sagrada Familia, two examples of the least boring modern-ish buildings that exist.

Heatherwick makes a compelling argument. Maybe this book is a good start to instigate more change in the world of architecture and design. Maybe this is an important book for the building industry.

I come from an arts background, and have taught and advocated for years for creating communities which use arts and culture to benefit livability, quality of life and place, and even economic health. I was thrilled to come across this book, which has similar goals but comes from the architecture side of the picture. Renowned architect Thomas Heatherwick presents a simple premise: buildings used to be interesting. Now they’re boring. And boring buildings are worse than just boring. They are soul-sucking, stress-inducing, environmentally irresponsible monstrosities that have disadvantages far beyond the fact that they are boring and ugly.

Heatherwick starts with an analysis of one of the world’s most unique and beautiful structures, Gaudi’s Basilica de La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, then contrasts this and other buildings in Barcelona with the Modernist movement championed by Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jenneret-Gris) and echoed by other 20th Century artists from Picasso to Pollock in their attempt to strip art down to the basics and experiment with new forms. All well and good, but instead of work hanging on museum walls, building design and city planning affect all of us. In contrast to Louis Sullivan’s famous maxim that form should follow function, which places the design onus on the interior, Heatherwick argues that the exterior affects many more people and should be treated with more care.

Heatherwick applies his own belief in humanization of structure by making the format of the book creative and interesting. He includes dozens of examples of good and bad architecture, presents material using graphic creativity. Even if I were not interested in the subject matter, the format of the book would have kept me interested. Which, obviously, is the point.

This book should be required reading for architects, planners, designers, political officials and anyone else with a stake in creating communities that nurture people instead of dehumanizing them.

Many thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the opportunity to receive an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.