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we all had equal rights to the city, says Tom Greenall, architect and director at DSDHA

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WHEN HENRI LEFEBVRE wrote The Right to the City in 1968, it changed how we think about the rights we hold as citizens to make and remake our cities. Today, the question of who the city is for is more relevant than ever. With so many of the challenges that contemporary society faces – the climate emergency, global migration, structural racism among others - real change is routinely framed as not feasible. Does it have to be this way?

Just as the housing crisis cannot be remedied without a robust sustainable vision; neither can public spaces truly be understood as inclusive if they fail to recognise neglected histories without addressing entrenched social-economic inequities. We need new forms of participation that allow everyone to have an equal say in shaping the kind of city they want to live in. We need to reframe the right to the city as the right to urban inclusivity.

Tom Greenall is an architect and director at architecture, urban design and research studio DSDHA. The studio’s aim is to foster positive change, creating social value through collaboration and meaningful engagement with neighbourhoods and communities, as well as stakeholders and collaborators, to deliver projects that have the broadest impact.