Writing the City - Part 1
What makes a city feel like home? Writer Gabriella Bennett explores how architecture, climate, conflict and inequality shape the places where we live and our sense of belonging.
In this three-part feature, we take a look at different ways of writing the city and how cities are brought into view through journalism and fiction. Recorded live at the Off the Shelf festival in Sheffield in 2026, we talk with three writers - Gabriella Bennett, Saima Mir and Sufiyaan Salam about home, belonging, identity and wider questions of representational justice. Across the talks, key themes include how different forms of writing approximate the 'truth', how journalism and fiction give us space and time to understand cities beyond academia and what the connections are between writing the city and the right to the city.
In Part One, Beth and Tom interview journalist and author Gabriella Bennett about her new book How to Build a City: Journeys into the Urban Future, part long-form journalism, part travel-log exploring how cities are confronting the big issues of our time. Bennett takes us from growing-up in Glenrothes, to Ukraine, the North Pole, and even Mars. The conversation reconsiders ‘home’ as something which is constantly evolving, which is not fixed but can be designed ‘in’ and ‘out’ through architecture and planning, and is shaped by war, climate crisis, and societal injustices.
Listen to Parts Two and Three here:
Guest:
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.
Recommended Reading:
- David Harding, a town artist
- Discussing Edi Rama and Albanian 'starchitects' on Urban Radar Episode 35
- Discussing Tanzil Shafique's City of Desire on Urban Radar Episode 24
- Discussing Kiruna's church move on Urban Radar Episode 11
- Discussing rebuilding efforts in Ukraine whilst war is ongoing on Urban Radar Episode 9
Credits
- Guest: Gabriella Bennett (Journalist)
- Podcast Production, Presentation & Editing: Beth Perry (Professor of Urban Epistemics at the University of Sheffield and Director of the Urban Institute)
- Podcast Production, Presentation & Editing: Tom Goodfellow (Professor of Urban Development at the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester)
- Post-Production Editing & Marketing: Dr Sam Burgum (Urban Institute Visiting Fellow at the University of Sheffield)
- Training & Production Support: Jack Clayton (Creative Media Service Support Adviser at the University of Sheffield)
- Distribution, Promotion and Marketing: Vicky Simpson (Research Manager at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Cover: Dan Farley Designs
- Music: Horizon (Music by Tom Goodfellow, Recorded & Produced by Alan Thomson), Falling Down (Music by Tom Goodfellow, Performed by the Dice, Produced by Alan Thomson)
- Image Credit: Dr Maria Tomlinson
- Special Thanks: Supported by the Faculty of Social Science and the Creative Media Suite at the University of Sheffield and University of Manchester and their Media Suite
