Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

Abstract

This book review discusses Charles Montgomery's 2013 book entitled 'Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design'. This book discusses the relationship between the form and design of the city and happiness. The physical shape and design of the city affect emotions, health, and the way people interact with each other. The theories in this book draw on perspectives from urban planning, environmental psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. In addition, the regions studied in this book are Bogotá (Colombia), Vancouver (Canada), New York & Atlanta (USA), and Copenhagen (Denmark).

The cover of this book represents the contents of Montgomery's book. We argue that the colorful images of tall buildings fit the book's purpose: happiness. Among these tall buildings, the author tries to visualize the existence of green open spaces with garden benches. This suggests that green open space supports psychological recovery, increases physical activity, and strengthens social activities/interactions, especially in urban communities (Alhadedy and Alomary 2024; Samavati et al. 2025; Samavati and Veenhoven 2024). There is a silhouette image of children playing with kites and bicycles. This illustrates that the city should be built not only with a complete infrastructure that supports economic activities, but also with a sense of security and comfort for children and the elderly. Thus, the city can be considered inclusive and may become the center of community activities.

This book contributes to the shift in urban development, where initially the city was built with economic growth, to human-oriented development. Several statements are strengths in his writing. At the beginning of the chapter, he wrote about the psychology of mobility. Montgomery explains how people (in this case, society) get stuck in daily commuting. They prefer to live in a suburb far from their work, so they spend their days commuting. This book also mentions that the existence of public transportation often causes disappointment, especially in terms of uncertainty of departure schedules and infrastructure design that is not optimal and comfortable. The impact of high stress levels triggers a decline in the quality of life. On the other hand, people who use their own power to move, such as walking or riding bicycles, consistently report the highest levels of excitement. In the next chapter, Montgomery discusses freedom. He criticized the notion that freedom in mobility is defined by the speed of vehicles through the toll road construction, but rather by the freedom to choose how to move safely and comfortably. He explained that the highway used to be a common space, but cars are currently the priority. This phenomenon certainly harms children, the elderly, and the poor who cannot or cannot afford to drive.

We argue that the phenomenon written by Montgomery is relevant to conditions in Indonesia, especially in metropolitan cities. So far, the urban development is oriented towards private vehicles through road widening, toll road construction, among others. The dominance of this mobility movement certainly creates inequality for marginalized groups, the elderly, and children. Rapid urbanization in metropolitan Indonesia, such as Tangerang, forces people to face long journeys to urban centers (Rosida, Sari, and Irjayanti 2019). This book substantially provides a framework for the concept of a happy city, namely (1) Public space that must be neutral and easily accessible, (2) The existence of an integrated space that encourages the creation of social interaction, (3) the existence of inclusive public transportation and safe and comfortable pedestrian paths, (4) the design of a city that can adapt to the local culture. Therefore, the concept of a happy city, in this case, involves the existence of city spaces, such as a fostered environment, that serve as a forum to improve the quality of life of its people. The four points above show that the better the urban built environment, the higher the level of happiness of the community (Khare and Chatterjee 2024; Makki and Khalid 2025; Mirzaei et al. 2016; Sepe 2017).  However, the ideas Montgomery writes about in this book are more narrative and inspirational than technical-empirical, so there is no operational technical formula for developing a happy City. This limitation offers another perspective, written by Brdulak (2017), titled Happy City: How to Plan and Create the Best Livable Area for the People. It offers a more systematic approach to formulating the elements of a livable and happy city. As such, the two books are considered complementary approaches.

References

Brdulak, Anna. 2017. Happy City-How to Plan and Create The Best Livable Area for The People. edited by Halina Drdulak. Poland: Springer International Publishing.
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Makki, T. M., and Z. Khalid. 2025. “Happy City Strategy, Satisfying Individuals’ Needs by Sustainable Urban Design (Zurich and Dubai as Models).” in E3S Web of Conferences. Vol. 633.
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