Building and Dwelling, Ethics for the City
I hope we are not offending any architects or City planners by admitting we never heard of Richard Sennet before? But his latest book ‘Building and Dwelling – Ethics for the City’ is an eye-opener and articulating why and how buzzwords like IoT, Smart City and Artificial Intelligence are easily overrated in solving sociological and economic issues, especially in cities.
Be warned, it’s overwhelming, but in the end, the simple principals Richard Sennet introduces to make a City really Smart: truly valuable for its Citizens, are explaining why technology companies (like ours) will easily run the risk of overengineering their solutions or add functionality which nobody will ever use, and focus on being a service provider with end users in mind first.
Sennet explains how a city architecture should just create the conditions which allow it’s users to find and develop it’s purpose. It should be build ‘open’ and allow for Citizens to engage, influence and transform. Examples across the world, from New York, London, Delhi (Nehru place), to Masdar City, explain his approach.
If the book is too much to read, just spend an hour watching the video…definitely worth it.
