Bournville was built by people who understood something we've forgotten. Wherever I land for work, I go looking for the history of the place. It's how I switch off. Most people have a podcast. I've got ancient buildings, historic landmarks and Victorian purpose-built villages. New Lanark, Bournville and Port Sunlight... were all built by industrialists who were no saints, but who grasped one thing. Put the work and the homes in the same place and you get a community. Put up homes on their own and you get an address. Then look at what happened when Glasgow cleared the tenements. People were moved out to brand new schemes. Better bathrooms, more space, proper light. However a massive oversight = no work or industry. Nothing in the middle of it for anybody to belong to. We all know how a lot of those estates went. It gets talked about as a housing failure. I think it was a purpose failure. This is my long game, for what it's worth. Definitely not this year, maybe not this decade. Housing built for the poorest communities in partnership with private industry. Factories and homes going up together, the way it used to be done. Every building is downstream of a decision somebody made. Usually a decision about people, dressed up as a decision about bricks next time you're in a town that feels like it's given up, have a look at what used to be in the middle of it. It normally explains the lot.

Posted by Chris at 2026-08-04 16:08:49 UTC