This course invites students to reflect on apparently purely ‘technical’ aspects of architecture from a sociological perspective. However, rather than exploring the ‘symbolic’ dimension or the ‘social’ meaning of buildings, we would like to dwell on the practicalities of buildings, trying to provide a series of accounts on Building socialities (the forms of sociality afforded or inscribed by buildings), Building design (a reflection on how buildings are conceived, paying attention to a minute narration of the design process), and Building lives (how buildings come to life, and how the practicalities of their materials and uses affect such processes). These are the kind of questions that we will explore in this course by means of lectures, case studies and audio-visual materials. The aim of the course is enable students to reflect about their own expert practice as architects and provide them with a conceptual repertoire to understand the complex socio-technical issues of the buildings they work on.