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.

Can signage really create a sense of identity, and would you post your name outside your front door for all to see?

European cities are all experiencing unprecedented population growth. As urban land gets ever tighter, how do we engage city dwellers productively in the ‘growth’ conversation? Helsinki gives some clues…

A summary of the first half of my tour of European housing

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.

Why don’t we use awnings any more? They work on so many levels…

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?