Building and Dwelling

'Thank god for Richard Sennett ... essential reading for all students of the city' Anna Minton, Prospect

'Constantly stimulating ideas from a veteran of urban thinking' Jonathan Meades, Guardian

In Building and Dwelling, Richard Sennett distils a lifetime'sthinking and practical experience to explore the relationship betweenthe good built environment and the good life. He argues for, anddescribes in rich detail, the idea of an open city, one in which peoplelearn to manage complexity. He shows how the design of cities can enrichor diminish the everyday experience of those who dwell in them.

Thebook ranges widely - from London, Paris and Barcelona to Shanghai,Mumbai and Medellin in Colombia - and draws on classic thinkers such asTocqueville, Heidegger, Max Weber, and Walter Benjamin. It also draws onSennett's many decades as a practical planner himself, testing whatworks, what doesn't, and why. He shows what works ethically is often themost practical solution for cities' problems. This is a humaneand thrilling book, which allows us to think freshly about how we livein cities.

'Sennett is my kind of urbanist. He sees the modern city. He reads its secrets as he walks down the street, kicking over the detritus of the past ... There is no alternative to the planner, but please a planner who has read Sennett's book' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times

Değerlendirmeler

Distils into a single volume his thoughts on how urban design shapes the ways in which we relate to one another ... Typically idealistic, typically urbane, it is well-timed for the disputes of our day