How buildings and cities shape our lives, from ancient Rome to Hong Kong today

In that particular case, Churchill believed the oppositional layout of the lower house was responsible for the very nature of British parliamentary democracy. He did not want it to be rebuilt in a more modern – and potentially more conciliatory – U-shape.

For Stefan Al – an actual architectural scholar – Churchill captured the essence of a broader truth: “Our homes are not just where we live. They are how we live,” he writes in his new book, Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home.

A former director of the University of Hong Kong’s urban design programme and now based at Hunter College in New York, Al has made a productive sideline in writing sharp, accessible books about cities and their buildings. His previous titles include Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption and Supertall: How the World’s Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives.

The breadth of his latest subject might suggest that he has delivered a dense tome on the nature of domestic architecture. But it is just the opposite. Dwelling on Earth brings together archaeology, social history, architecture and environmental science in a brisk, entertaining survey that manages to compress 2 million years of human habitation into 258 pages.