Living and Community

Geoff Mulgan, Director of the Young Foundation has called on architects to take a lead in shaping the built environment to accommodate the UK’s ageing population.

Speaking before the publication of his new book, Living and Community, he told BD Magazine: “We’re in a period of extraordinary change to the built environment, massive amounts of capital is going into new housing. Just as in the 21st century you need to be ultra-aware of carbon, it’s vital to be aware of how people use spaces, especially as life expectancy surges to the 90s and 100s.”  He said the industry could not afford to wait for new regulations.

“The housing industry has been extraordinarily slow to grasp how fundamental these changes are” he says. “I’m not that keen on more bureaucracy, I’d rather the industry took the lead itself. One of the reasons the industry is so vulnerable to cyclical swings is it is so bad at planning ahead. You don’t need everything spelled out in regulation.”

Mulgan said the UK could not afford to make the same mistakes that were being made in China.

“In China there is rapid growth of cities based on tower blocks, based on cars, and they’re finding all sorts of social problems, and the environmental cost. It would be a tragedy if we repeated the mistakes. ”

Living and Community is one of a series of books published by Black Dog next month, including Education and Creativity by architects Simon Foxell and BD columnist Bill Mitchell, and Work and the City by former RIBA president Frank Duffy.