frivolous, even self-indulgent

One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: The kinds of walls, chairs, buildings and streets that surround us.
And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. ...

Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness, Pantheon Books, New York, 2006, inside front cover,
www.alaindebotton.com/architecture.asp.