“the built environment is one thing, how people dwell in it another.”- R. Sennett
In Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City, Richard Sennett explores one of the most pressing questions of urban life: how should we live in cities? He examines the tension between how cities are designed, the concepts of «building» and how people actually experience them, the idea of «dwelling«, ultimately advocating for an “open city” that embraces complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty.
To frame his argument, Sennett distinguishes between two aspects of urban life. The ville refers to the built environment—the physical structures and planning decisions that shape a city. The cité, on the other hand, encompasses the social and cultural interactions that emerge within urban spaces. Over time, Sennett argues, these two elements have drifted apart, creating cities that may be visually striking but fail to support the messy, dynamic realities of urban life.
In the 19th century, ambitious planners such as Baron Haussmann in Paris, Ildefons Cerdà in Barcelona, and Frederick Olmsted’s Central Park in New York sought to reshape cities, believing that urban form could transform human behavior. Yet their designs often failed to recognise and acknowledge the unpredictable ways people actually inhabit cities. This tension continued into the 20th century: the Chicago School of sociology studied urban life but paid little attention to physical design, while modernist planners like Le Corbusier created visually compelling cities that lacked social imagination. Even Jane Jacobs’s organic, small-scale urbanism and Lewis Mumford’s vision of the planned metropolis, Sennett argues, were equally incomplete approaches to city-making.
The Open vs. Closed City
At the heart of Sennett’s book is the distinction between open and closed cities. Open cities are flexible, porous, and adaptable, allowing diverse communities to interact and shape their environments. Closed cities, by contrast, prioritize order, efficiency, and control, often at the cost of spontaneity and human agency. Sennett critiques modern urban planning for favoring closed-city thinking, where rigid zoning laws, privatized public spaces, and surveillance-driven “smart cities” suppress the organic evolution of urban life.
Sennett’s inquiry is not just about design—it’s about ethics. Drawing on the anecdotes from his travels, he illustrates how people navigate urban life and adapt to its constraints. In Delhi’s Nehru Place, he introduces Mr. Sudhir, a migrant street trader struggling to belong in an indifferent metropolis. Sennett sees this struggle as emblematic of the ethical dilemma of city life: how do we coexist with others who are different from us? He suggests that urban tolerance is often built on “superficial civilities”—small, everyday interactions that maintain social harmony without forcing intimacy.
This idea resonates with his reading of Martin Heidegger, whose retreat to nature reflected a rejection of the complexities of urban life. Rather than escaping the city, Sennett argues, we must embrace its contradictions and cultivate what Immanuel Kant called “unsocial sociability”—a way of living together that accepts difference without demanding conformity.
Designing for the Open City
Sennett moves from theory to practice, proposing design principles for more open and inclusive cities. He emphasizes the importance of creating permeable and adaptable spaces that encourage interaction and allow urban environments to evolve over time. Rather than rigid, single-purpose developments, he advocates for variegated urban forms that accommodate diverse uses and foster greater flexibility. He also highlights the role of subtle markers, such as potted plants, in humanizing otherwise nondescript spaces and making cities feel more inviting. Furthermore, Sennett stresses that urban planning requires community involvement where local residents actively participate in shaping their environments before professionals step away, ensuring that cities remain dynamic and responsive to the people who inhabit them.
Sennett’s Vision
While Building and Dwelling is widely regarded as a rich and thought-provoking book, some critics argue that it leaves key issues underexplored, particularly the impact of economic inequality on urban life. Sennett envisions an open city where residents can navigate and shape their environments, yet for many, economic displacement and social exclusion present insurmountable obstacles. The spread of luxury developments, gentrification, and soaring property values creates financial barriers that cannot be erased by open spaces or increased street-level interaction alone.
Some argue that Sennett’s focus on global megacities like London, New York, and Shanghai raises questions about how his ethics of urbanism apply to struggling post-industrial cities. What does the open city mean in places like Milwaukee, Middlesbrough, or Mulhouse, where economic decline, rather than overdevelopment, is the pressing issue?
Conclusion: Toward a More Ethical Urbanism
Building and Dwelling is an essential read for urbanists, architects, and policymakers. His call for a more flexible, participatory, and adaptive approach to city-making is a necessary counterpoint to the dominant trends of top-down, technocratic urban planning.
In this book, Sennett challenges us to rethink what makes a good city—not just in terms of its buildings and infrastructure, but in the everyday ways people dwell, interact, and create meaning within it. The future of urban life, Sennett suggests, depends on our ability to embrace uncertainty and build cities that are not just efficient, but truly livable.