Oliver Wainwright is the architecture and design critic of the Guardian. He trained as an architect at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art, and worked at OMA, muf, and the Mayor of London’s Architecture and Urbanism Unit. He has served as curatorial advisor to the Architecture Foundation and is a regular visiting critic and lecturer at a number of architecture schools. His photography has been exhibited around the world and his first book, Inside North Korea, was published by Taschen in 2018.

What would London look like if housing was no longer a commodity, but simply a place to live? How would it feel if streets were used not to park cars, but for children to play, and to grow flowers and vegetables together? What could life be like if we pooled our resources, shared our amenities, and knew our neighbours? The projects I’ve selected present an alternative vision for how we might live together, ranging from co-housing and community land trusts, to sociable housing for older people, to neighbours who decided to get together and built their homes themselves.