Britain can put up acres of shoddy new-builds – or homes fit for the future. We do have a choice | Astrid Smitham

Labour’s plan for 1.5m new homes is a chance to raise the bar for all, but it must be focused on real social and climate needs

• Astrid Smitham is an architect and lecturer

We are in the midst of a desperate housing emergency, so Keir Starmer is right to make delivering 1.5m homes central to Labour’s goals. But to truly solve the crisis, building more homes like the ones we are typically putting up now will not do. As long as so many of the basics of new housing are failing, focusing on the style of the wrapper will not help deliver homes suited for the future.

As an architect, and the recipient of the 2023 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Neave Brown award for housing, I spend a lot of time thinking about homes that can improve people’s lives. The right homes can help address not just the housing crisis, but the national crises of climate, loneliness, mental health and social care as well. This can be done without increasing costs, and should be part of Starmer’s promised new design standards. Here’s how.

Astrid Smitham is an architect and lecturer, and co-founder of the practice Apparata with Nicholas Lobo Brennan. Apparata’s project A House For Artists is the recipient of the 2023 Neave Brown award for housing, a 2023 Housing Design award and was nominated for the 2023 Stirling prize

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/KRF2mvk