‘Confronting drivers with their guilty conscience’ would be frowned upon in the UK, but is the cultural norm in Vauban, where the tram glides into town every five minutes.

High density housing can be attractive and intriguing when designed well. These two schemes glory in colour, mixed use and hard public realm.

Vienna’s state-owned housing is not only inspirational, but beautiful and cherished by its residents, citizens and visitors. These two mega-schemes show resident-centred mixed-use in action.

Redundant transport infrastructure provides major new housing sites in outer and inner Vienna. But new transport is the key to Aspern’s success, as well as a high density of 100 homes per hectare.

Can starchitects do housing? Find out my view…

East Berlin’s gentrification is not without controversy, and the gates on this development felt less welcoming than Berlin’s usual offerings. But a ‘grow-your-own’ elevation lifted the corporate vibe.

Berlin responded to the 1920s housing crisis with dignified and colourful blocks, now heritage sites mostly occupied by older residents who enjoy the peace and birdsong.

Berlin’s ‘work-in-progress’ vibe is captured well in Spreefeld’s unfinished aesthetic. Resident-led development like this may be on the wane as a more commercial sensibility sweeps this majestic city.

Helsinki is refashioning its former dockside districts at a rate of knots, and the results are variable. Is the lesson for London: more haste less speed?

Art school occupants are a boon to any regeneration project, not least in this former Ericsson campus in Stockholm. The ‘Ericsson Spirit’ also made me wonder whether more employer-led housing might make a comeback?

Intimate streets and optional boundaries characterise a new neighbourhood in this Swedish fishing village.

What’s the recipe for Swedish regeneration? Take one lakeside location, add some mid rise pavilions, boardwalks, pastel render… but don’t forget the trees!

What happened when a super-green housing scheme’s residents moved in? And how shouldn’t city leaders put their major urban renewal projects on the map?

Communal residential gardens are a joy, even if their use has to be negotiated by residents and others alike. Scandinavian ones tended to be ‘open access’ – but a new more commercial sensibility is taking over.

Imagine detaching your balcony from your flat, floating it on a canal, driving it along the water round to your friend’s house…

A dystopian new district of Copenhagen is a strange adjunct to this most civilised of cities. Experimental housing typologies complete the futuristic picture: but what’s it like to live in an icon?

Can an ‘International Building Exhibition’ kickstart the regeneration of a huge and unloved piece of city? Hamburg’s Wilhelmsburg tells that tale.

You can’t fault HafenCity’s masterplan, but is it almost too planned and polite? And when are they going to finish that concert hall…?

This majestic expressionist 20s office building shows the complexity and beauty which can be derived from a single brick and a single window. (You can fit 400 flats in it too…)

Gehry’s art gallery gave birth to the ‘Bilbao effect’: the lifting of a challenged area through the sheer power of iconic architecture. Did adding housing to this mix work for Rotterdam and Hamburg?