How to Build Beautiful Homes

The government has announced it will spend £39 billion on affordable and social housing, following its earlier pledge to get 1.5million homes built through reform of the planning system. These policies will make places where a large part of the population will live for decades to come: families will settle and children will grow up in them. How can design help communities and individuals to flourish, rather than merely produce accumulations of residential units? What makes new housing work? How can new homes be seen as a public good, rather than as a form of pollution to be opposed at all costs?

Rowan Moore, architecture critic of The Observer, in conversation with Arthur Kay, urban designer, entrepreneur and author, will draw on examples of new housing from Britain and abroad, including mass-timber apartment blocks in Paris and solid stone social housing in the Balearic Islands, to identify what matters – sustainability in construction and use, the creation of people-friendly spaces between buildings, access to nature and shared assets, quality of construction and the aesthetic of houses. He will explore re-use and retrofitting of existing fabric and look at the factors that make good design, such as ownership, tenure, procurement and planning.

Admission price includes a copy of the book Property, the Myth that Built the World, (Faber, 2025)

Previous homebuilding booms, by both private and public sectors, left mixed bags of gems and atrocities. How can this country make a housing legacy to be proud of?

Attendees can look forward to an informative and thought-provoking discussion and a Q&A session providing the opportunity to engage directly and explore specific topics of interest.

Rowan Moore is Architecture Critic of The Observer. He was formerly Director of the Architecture Foundation, Architecture Critic of the Evening Standard and Editor of Blueprint magazine. His most recent book is Property, the Myth that Built the World, published by Faber in 2023, and updated in 2025. Previous books include Slow Burn City (Picador 2016), which explores the transformations of London in the 21st century and Why We Build (Picador 2012). His awards include Critic of the Year at the UK Press Awards.

WEB: observer.co.uk/contributor/rowan-mooreBluesky Social: @rowanmoore.bsky.socialX: @RowanMoore

This event is co-hosted by Temple Bar Trust and The Gilded Acorn bookshop, London WC2, and introduced by Lucy Bullivant Hon FRIBA, Trustee, Temple Bar Trust.

A selection of tickets are available for £15, which do not require the purchase of the book.

It includes:

• A softback copy of the 2025 edition of Rowan Moore’s book, Property, the Myth that Built the World, (Faber, 2023) is included in the ticket price, and will be provided to ticket holders on entry to Temple Bar.

• A book signing session with Rowan Moore.

The Gilded Acorn bookshop is based at 1 Portugal Street, WC2A 2ES opposite the Marshall Building on the LSE campus.WEB: The Gilded AcornINSTAGRAM: @thegildedacornbookshopLinktr.ee: The Gilded Acorn bookshop

We would be delighted if you would join us for a networking reception with the speaker and audience members after the main event .

Please note: Temple Bar will be open for ticket holders from 18:05, please arrive in good time to be checked in and seated by 18:20. Our public talks start at promptly at 18:25.