You Can Design Happiness
What it’s like to live in a society designed for its people, literally
What’s it like to live in a society literally and metaphorically designed for its people?
I had a chance to find out while spending a year in Denmark. The tiny unassuming country prides itself on its unprecedented life-work balance, true gender equality, the generous welfare state, and being voted the “second happiest country on Earth.”
As a visitor, I couldn’t get a taste of shorter working hours or welfare support but I still experienced a society that seemed to be built, literally, for its people.
Denmark’s obsession with interior design is obvious to a naked eye: it’s everywhere, from the airport equipped with famous Arne Jacobson chairs to the many design stores of Copenhagen, and from cozy offices to immaculate homes, seen through the never-covered windows.
Yet the so-called “livability” design is less obvious: it can be seen in the way the city, and the country, are set up and how it accommodates its citizens. The small thoughtful details of everyday life are what struck me in Denmark.
It’s as if they really cared for the lives of their people, I thought.
