Times of London

In London, a housing crunch is creating a new trend of converting old office spaces into housing. The majority of the city's new housing developments are actually old office spaces.

With more than 1.6 million Britons living in high-risk flood areas -- a number expected to double or even triple within 75 years -- lawmakers and environmentalists are looking for safer ways to house people on floodplains.

This Times of London opinion piece calls for planners and architects with a true vision to get back in control of city planning. The author argues that "it is the developers who produce the master plans, and the city that responds to them."