Abstract

Does the contemporary built environment—the ensemble of our humanly created surroundings—make us happy? This question prompts a consideration of the psychological dimensions of economic value, and of Tibor Scitovsky's revisions of standard economic theory. With Scitovsky as a starting point, a model of value based on modern complexity theory and a Maslow‐like rendition of human needs can account for some of the more important exceptions to the law of diminished marginal utility, including those that may undermine the built environment in a market economy.