The Shaping of Us
How Everyday Spaces Structure Our Lives, Behaviour, and Well-Being
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The Shaping of Us
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Narrated by:
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Beth Frieden
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By:
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Lily Bernheimer
About this listen
What makes everyday spaces work, how do they shape us, and what do they say about us? The spaces we live in - whether public areas, housing, offices, hospitals or cities - mediate community, creativity and our very identity, making us who we are.
Using insights from environmental psychology, design, and architecture, The Shaping of Us reveals the often imperceptible ways in which our surroundings influence our behaviour. Wide-ranging and global examples cover the differences between personalities and nationalities, explore grassroots and mainstream efforts to build environments promoting well-being, and look ahead to what will become of us if we don't listen closely to what we know is good for us.
You will learn whether you are a natural 'prospector' or 'refuge' in the office environment, what roundabouts and stoplights say about British and American culture, whether you are guilty of Nimbyism or being drawn to 'ruin porn', and how the half-house may be a common sight in the near future. The environments we inhabit define our identities - from the earliest moments of our evolution to the worlds we build around ourselves.
©2017 Lily Bernheimer (P)2017 Audible, Ltd.Listeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
Cities are birthplaces of civilization; centers of culture, trade, and progress; cauldrons of opportunity - and the home of 80 percent of the world's population by 2050. As the 21st century progresses, metropolitan areas will bear the brunt of global megatrends such as climate change, natural resource depletion, population growth, income inequality, mass migrations, and education and health disparities, among many others.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The best way to save the future is to look at the past
- By Kate on 10-01-22
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The Great Indoors
- The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness
- By: Emily Anthes
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 37
In this wide-ranging, character-driven audiobook, science-journalist Emily Anthes takes us on an adventure into the buildings in which we spend our days, exploring the profound and sometimes unexpected ways that they shape our lives. Drawing on cutting-edge research, she probes the painkilling power of a well-placed window and examines how the right office layout can expand our social networks.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating stories, well researched, read twice
- By ep on 01-18-21
By: Emily Anthes
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Jane Jacobs, Jason Epstein - introduction
- Narrated by: Donna Rawlins
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 690
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 573
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 565
Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context. It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book's arguments."
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic text, dull on audio
- By Meghan on 02-13-15
By: Jane Jacobs, and others
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Happy City
- Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
- By: Charles Montgomery
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 380
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 340
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 340
After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks, and tower dwelling improvements on the car dependence of sprawl?
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book-terrible narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 02-04-19
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Who’s Your City?
- How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life
- By: Richard Florida
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
All places are not created equal. In this groundbreaking book, Richard Florida shows that where we live is increasingly a crucial factor in our lives, one that fundamentally affects our professional and personal prospects. As well as explaining why place matters now more than ever, Who's Your City? provides indispensable tools to help you choose the right place for you.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Mimi Routh on 08-08-10
By: Richard Florida
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You Belong to the Universe
- Buckminster Fuller and the Future
- By: Jonathon Keats
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 347
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 292
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Story4 out of 5 stars 289
A self-professed "comprehensive anticipatory design scientist", the inventor Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was undoubtedly a visionary. Fuller's creations often bordered on the realm of science fiction, ranging from the freestanding geodesic dome to the three-wheel Dymaxion car to a bathroom requiring neither plumbing nor sewage. Yet in spite of his brilliant mind and lifelong devotion to serving mankind, Fuller's expansive ideas were often dismissed, and have faded from public memory since his death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Bucky, Bucky, Bucky
- By Amazon Customer on 08-25-18
By: Jonathon Keats
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Why Architecture Matters
- By: Paul Goldberger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 76
The purpose of Why Architecture Matters is to "come to grips with how things feel to us when we stand before them, with how architecture affects us emotionally as well as intellectually" - with its impact on our lives. "Architecture begins to matter," writes Paul Goldberger, "when it brings delight and sadness and perplexity and awe along with a roof over our heads."
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4 out of 5 stars
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Reading too mechanical
- By Petrie on 09-01-15
By: Paul Goldberger
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Future Shock
- By: Alvin Toffler
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
Future Shock is about the present. Future Shock is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations - even our patterns of friendship and love. Future Shock vividly describes the emerging global civilization: tomorrow's family life, the rise of new businesses, subcultures, lifestyles, and human relationships - all of them temporary. It illuminates the world of tomorrow by exploding countless cliches about today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So Accurate
- By Peter Gracia on 03-31-19
By: Alvin Toffler
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Glimmer
- How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World
- By: Warren Berger
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4 out of 5 stars 39
The first book to reveal how thinking like a designer can help solve the greatest challenges we face in business, society, and our daily lives. What can we learn from the ways great designers think-and how can it improve our world? In this highly original book by journalist Warren Berger, in collaboration with celebrated designer Bruce Mau, ten groundbreaking principles of design are shown in action-addressing business, social, and personal challenges and improving the way we think, work, and live.
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2 out of 5 stars
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not for those who know about design thinking...
- By Pierre on 09-06-10
By: Warren Berger
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Why Information Grows
- The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
- By: César Hidalgo
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 386
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 322
What is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's anti-disciplinarian César Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands transcending the social sciences and including the natural sciences of information, networks, and complexity. To understand the growth of economies, Hidalgo argues, we first need to understand the growth of order.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book!
- By bpjammin on 01-07-17
By: César Hidalgo
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The End of the Suburbs
- Where the American Dream is Moving
- By: Leigh Gallagher
- Narrated by: Jessica Geffen
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 78
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
For nearly 70 years, the suburbs were as American as apple pie. But in recent years things have started to change. An epic housing crisis revealed existing problems with this unique pattern of development, while the steady pull of long-simmering economic, societal and demographic forces has culminated in a Perfect Storm that has led to a profound shift in the way we desire to live. In The End of the Suburbs journalist Leigh Gallagher traces the rise and fall of American suburbia from the stately railroad suburbs that sprung up outside American cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries to current-day sprawling exurbs.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Informative, but the title is a lie
- By Marie on 08-27-13
By: Leigh Gallagher
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How Soon Is Now
- From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation
- By: Daniel Pinchbeck
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story5 out of 5 stars 22
The world needs to change. We have unleashed an ecological mega-crisis which is threatening the future of life on Earth. The actions we take over the next decade are critical. They will determine the destiny of our descendants and the fate of our world. How Soon Is Now presents a compelling manifesto for personal and planetary change. It proposes a revolutionary new narrative for a unified social movement. Through global cooperation, we can face this collective threat ecologically, socially, politically and spiritually.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Relevant!!!!
- By Anonymous User on 12-11-23
By: Daniel Pinchbeck
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Transcendence
- How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
- By: Gaia Vince
- Narrated by: Gaia Vince
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Far too much bias and unsupported conclusions
- By Kurt Leyendecker on 10-01-20
By: Gaia Vince
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Green Metropolis
- What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability
- By: David Owen
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4 out of 5 stars 50
In this remarkable challenge to conventional thinking about the environment, David Owen argues that the greenest community in the United States is not Portland, Oregon, or Snowmass, Colorado, but New York City.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A stupid and dangerously short sighted view
- By Gare&Sophia on 11-13-12
By: David Owen
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Americans Against the City
- Anti-Urbanism in the Twentieth Century
- By: Steven Conn
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
An aversion to urban density and all that it contributes to urban life, and a perception that the city was the place where "big government" first took root in America fostered what historian Steven Conn terms the "anti-urban impulse." In this provocative and sweeping audiobook, Conn explores the anti-urban impulse across the 20th century, examining how the ideas born of it have shaped both the places in which Americans live and work, and the anti-government politics so strong today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book
- By M. M. Conroy on 09-19-20
By: Steven Conn
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The New Breed
- What Our History with Animals Reveals About Our Future with Robots
- By: Kate Darling
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, and that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The book is interesting, and makes good points, but Kate darling forgot about slavery in history
- By jeremy on 10-24-21
By: Kate Darling
What listeners say about The Shaping of Us
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- NN
- 04-12-20
Fun to listen book on Environmental Psych
Covers much of the best known literature on Environmental Psychology related to the built environment. It's easy to follow and fairly entertaining. Pruitt-Igoe is mispronounced, but the narration is good.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tracy Shaw
- 03-22-24
Reshaping the concept of space
I enjoyed the narration and presentation of concepts and how we can benefit from understanding the impact of effective spacial solutions,
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rebecca Hallqvist
- 08-28-18
Opened a new door
Starting off from the evolution of our species, Bernheimer takes us on a journey that will change how you think about our modern day habitats. Our built environment is not just about buildings, but about culture and illusions and we have yet to learn how to build for people.
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1 person found this helpful