Lessons to Learn from Cities of the Future – Gabriella Bennett

in conversation with Beth Perry
Wed 14 October, 2026 at 7:00 pm

A moveable city in the Arctic Circle. Tower blocks tackling loneliness in Tokyo. Helsinki’s sprawling underground metropolis. And Ukraine’s bomb-resistant bedrooms. These places, and many more, are among the solutions responding to our uncertain world. Journalist Gabriella Bennett’s conversation on her timely book How to Build a City, will take you on a globe-trotting journey of urban revolution to learn how we are reimagining home to embrace the challenges of contemporary living. From political instability to wildfires, flooding and an increased pressure on materials and space, the built environment is under threat like never before. It must change – and it is. Celebrating human ingenuity and resilience, How to Build a City is a remarkable investigation into where we’ll live and why it matters.

Gabriella Bennett is a Scottish based journalist who specialises in housing and architecture. She writes two weekly columns for The Times and The Sunday Times and her work has appeared in numerous national papers. Her first book, The Art of Coorie, was a Waterstones Bestseller.

Part of the Writing the City strand curated by Professor Beth Perry, Director of Urban Institute, University of Sheffield