Well-designed housing is at the heart of thriving communities, and in this issue you’ll find four building studies of such projects, featuring fewer cars, more colour and lots of gardens.

In Lincolnshire, Jonathan Hendry Architects offers a fresh take on suburban housebuilding; Page\Park has created a new landmark for Glasgow’s Gorbals with social housing for the over-55s; Pitman Tozer adds value to an unpromising site in Croydon with its mixed-use tower; and shedkm gives a Victorian cotton mill in Manchester a colourful rework.

In news, we revisit the Climate Innovation District in Leeds and hear about the realities of living in a testbed development; reveal proposals for Birmingham’s mammoth Smithfield scheme, ‘the most important city centre regeneration project in the UK’; and hear how residents of Glasgow’s Wyndford estate are fighting plans to demolish its towers.

Hari Phillips reviews a book about the Grenfell Tower tragedy ‘that will make you ashamed of the industry we work in’; the Secret Architect endures waffle from the Big-Vision Guys; and David Grandorge visits House for Artists. Meanwhile, the style wars rumble on, with Hellman re-imagining icons of modern architecture in Gove-approved styles.