“BRUTALISM” — the greatest misnomer in cultural vocabulary today — is in fact quite the opposite. An architecture of care, it embraces humanism, solidarity and unbridled imagination and by definition is participatory, aspirational and inherently democratic.

[[{"fid":"12257","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"2"}}]]It hasn’t always succeeded aesthetically but as an endeavour it has had universal appeal for decades.

When Margaret Thatcher — a stalking horse for the characteristic political brutality and myopia of neoliberalism — announced that “there’s no such thing as society,” it was the end of the line for the architecture of municipal housing intended to address the needs of ordinary people in housing, healthcare, leisure or public administration.