People, Not Architecture, Make Communities

Community is an illusive and, in many respects, unpredictable quality. A sense of citizenship does not simply follow on from a replication of the Victorian, walkable city, just as public disengagement and a lack of social cohesion are not immediate attributes of car‐based and low‐density conurbations. As David Miliband MP, Minister of Communities and Local Government, asserts: ‘Architecture on its own can't make communities.’ Here, in conversation with James Heartfield, Miliband discusses the problems at the heart of sustainable communities ‐ at a time of pending urgency as housing demand far outstrips supply.