Reshaped

The idea of the '15-minute neighbourhood' is very popular. But, Professor Paul Chatteron argues, it requires a fundamental shift in how we plan our towns and cities strategically, not just locally. Especially how we link neighbourhoods together and avoid the inequalities of 'gentrification' and car dominance. Covid has 'supercharged' the sustainability agenda, he thinks, and offers the opportunity to embed the 'net zero carbon' and socially-just placemaking principles we all now aspire to.

Urban Splash's tie-up with Japanese house-builder Seksui, and Homes England, has introduced a major new 'disruptor' to the UK's housing market. Technology has always driven architecture argues Tom Bloxham, yet Britain's housebuilders have preferred traditional methods and styles. By improving the efficiency of production lines and components in the factory, Urban Splash intends to change the way we build and, in the process, make better homes and places.

Covid has highlighted the housing crisis in Berlin and cities everywhere. It is caused by what Michael LaFond calls 'commodification' of housing, resulting in gentrification and rising prices which exclude people. Berlin's co-housing movement has built homes and places that offer greater social cohesion and address directly issues such as equality of opportunity, economic need and climate change. There is a growing political imperative to support such alternatives to market-made housing.

We still struggle to get the basics right when we build homes and places, thinks Mary Parsons. Yet Garden City principles still hold good, especially after Covid has forced us all to think harder about where we live, where we work, and how we use towns and cities. Planners, designers, builders and developers need to think even harder about quality and less about quantity, she argues. Which means understanding what people really need and avoiding our recent tendency to build-in obsolescence.

Suresh Singh trained as a carpenter before studying architecture at the Polytechnic of Central London and the Bartlett. He talks about the 'architectural spirit' that resides in 'the accidental beauty of the everyday' - an interest his Sikh father inspired in him as they witnessed the streets of London's East End change around them over the last 60 years. 'It's not just about steel and glass' he argues, 'it's about the interaction of people'.

We need to harness 'tech to measure how ecological issues created by our built environment are interconnected and can be better managed, so we can influence what we do about them. Pooran Desai advises projects around the world on ways they can help meet the One Planet Living principles he pioneered 20 years ago - otherwise we will continue to contribute to what he calls the 'sixth mass extinction' of species.

We need to harness 'tech to measure how ecological issues created by our built environment are interconnected and can be better managed, so we can influence what we do about them. Pooran Desai advises projects around the world on ways they can help meet the One Planet Living principles he pioneered 20 years ago - otherwise we will continue to contribute to what he calls the 'sixth mass extinction' of species.

Nicola Bacon's consultancy Social Life seeks and finds the 'social glue' that sticks communities together and advises government, third sector agencies and developers on how to tackle inequality and disadvantage working with those communities. She argues for profound changes in the way the built environment industries work before we demolish and 'regenerate'.

Nicola Bacon's consultancy Social Life seeks and finds the 'social glue' that sticks communities together and advises government, third sector agencies and developers on how to tackle inequality and disadvantage working with those communities. She argues for profound changes in the way the built environment industries work before we demolish and 'regenerate'.

Stories is one of a new breed of property developers seeking to ensure the benefits of development are spread more widely among the community using better ways of engaging with people and politicians, to win support and find better solutions for projects, but also because that will help drive long-term value. Investors too, he finds, are also increasingly keen on longer-lasting solutions.