Well-planned communities are vibrant communities.
For urban life to form, it requires a centre to form around – and our streets should be crucibles for community life.
At some point, our cities ceased to be for people. We turned squares into car parks, streets into thoroughfares, and cafés into drive-throughs.
Without any social blueprint, traditional town centres used to define their communities: a narrow street, a fountain, a church, the marketplace. Social encounter was a natural part of life.
In planned communities, such things don’t happen by accident.
Development teams with a vision and the courage to realise it are required. These visionaries exist today. The question is whether we give them the space to act before another housing estate turns into a soulless dormitory.
