Richard Sennett: Building and Dwelling

Join us for an in-depth exploration of the history and future of city life with Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics Richard Sennett OBE.

One of the world's leading thinkers on the relationship between people and the urban environment, Sennett has an intimate understanding of how cities are created and how we live in them, which he has laid out in his new book Building and Dwelling.

In this sweeping study, Sennett takes us on a tour of emblematic contemporary locations, from the backstreets of Medellín, Colombia, to the Google headquarters in Manhattan and shows how us how iconic cities such as Paris, Barcelona and New York assumed their modern forms.

Through it all he demonstrates how the segregated, regimented, and controlled 'closed city' model has spread across the world, and argues for a new 'open city' model where citizens actively hash out their differences and planners experiment with urban forms that make it easier for residents to cope.

At a time when more humans live in urban spaces than ever before, Building and Dwelling offers profound insights into urban living and uses them to form a bold and original vision for the future of cities.

Richard will be in conversation with Second Home co-founder Rohan Silva.

Tickets are free for members and £3 for non-members.

All proceeds from our cultural programme go to the Kibera Hamlets School in Nairobi, where Second Home has funded the construction of a new school building designed by our architects Selgas Cano.