Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home

Americans spend, on average, 90 percent of their lives indoors, with two-thirds of that time spent in their homes. Globally, the construction and maintenance of residential buildings account for a staggering portion of carbon emissions. In this timely and fascinating work, architect and urban-planning scholar Stefan Al deftly weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history, and environmental science to explain how our homes have developed through the ages and in turn shaped civilization and the planet itself.

From tiny pit-houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to soaring skyscrapers in Dubai, New York, and Shanghai today, Dwelling on Earth takes readers on a swift and absorbing tour of the evolution of human habitation. Whisking readers from ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, Al shows how our choices in housing have both reflected and affected ideas about gender roles, privacy, and comfort. Discover how seemingly mundane elements--like door-knockers and corridors--have altered everyday interactions, and how material choices have remade the planet's surface. He also confronts the darker side of domesticity, exposing the unintended consequences of our architectural choices across millennia, including smoke-filled Neolithic dwellings, deadly fires in crowded Roman apartment buildings, and worsening social isolation in car-dependent suburbs. Finally, he examines the myths and reality of future housing, including 3D-printed homes and space architecture built by robots.

Drawing from personal experiences across global cities and professional insights, Al illuminates how our choices in housing continue to influence everything from social relationships to climate change, ultimately arguing that understanding this rich history is crucial for building a more sustainable future. With billions more people needing housing in the coming decades, Dwelling on Earth reveals how we might transform humanity's defining challenge into our greatest opportunity.

Author: Stefan Al
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 04/14/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9781324065722


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/01/2026 pg. 112

About the Author
Al, Stefan: - Stefan Al, a New York-licensed architect who holds a PhD in urban planning from the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Supertall and The Strip, among other works. Originally from the Netherlands, he has lived and worked on four continents and now lives with his family in a 100-year-old house in New Jersey.