Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City

Richard Sennett is one of the world’s leading thinkers about the urban environment. In this talk he offers a bold and original vision for the future of cities.

Exploring cities across the globe, from the backstreets of Medellin, Colombia, to the Google HQ in Manhattan, to the blackened Grenfell Tower in London, Sennett reveals the tension between the built environment and the lives of the people who use it. He will discuss how the 'closed city' - segregated, regimented, and controlled - has spread from the global north to the exploding urban agglomerations of the global south. He argues instead for the 'open city,' where citizens can enrich their personal experience, hash out their differences and experiment with urban forms that allow residents to thrive.

Following his talk, Richard Sennett will be in conversation with Justin McGuirk, Chief Curator of the Design Museum.