Building and dwelling - Richard Sennett

'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's
thinking and practical experience to explore the relationship between
the good built environment and the good life. He argues for, and
describes in rich detail, the idea of an open city, one in which people
learn to manage complexity. He shows how the design of cities can enrich
or diminish the everyday experience of those who dwell in them.

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