Building and Dwelling

A lateish-life appraisal of what Richard Sennett has read, written and, most vitally, witnessed on the street or in the marketplace in the tradition of the sharp-eyed, sharp-nosed flâneur taking in every sensation – Jonathan Meades * Guardian *Sennett leavens the big ideas with snapshots of real life. … It reads like a summation of a life lived in cities and is, ultimately, a paean to their unpredictability, a call for tolerance and a celebration of difference. – Edwin Heathcote * Financial Times *He has brought to the study of urban life a perception that includes literature, philosophy, art, sociology and economics, as well as his personal experiences – Rowan Moore * Observer *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 – Justin McGuirk * New Yorker *

Richard Sennett grew up in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago, attended the Julliard School in New York and then studied social relations at Harvard. Over the last five decades, he has written about social life in cities, changes in labour and social theory. His books include The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, The Culture of the New Capitalism, The Craftsman and Building and Dwelling. Sennett has advised the United Nations on urban issues for the past thirty years and currently serves as member of the UN Committee on Urban Initiatives. He is Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at Harvard. Among other awards, he has received the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University.