“Growing up, I’ve always had a passion for the city. I recognise its flaws, as well as its potential. I’ve always had an ambition to play some part in influencing positive change. During my master’s degree, I identified some fundamental questions about how we regenerate the city — and looking back now, many of those questions are becoming increasingly relevant.

My experience since hasn’t changed my ambition for the city; if anything, it has reinforced my belief that architecture has a role to play in shaping its future.”

Six years after our architect Dean Deakin explored the urban potential of his home city, Stoke-on-Trent, in his Part II dissertation, several of the opportunities he identified are beginning to take shape.

Written in 2020, the dissertation – The Death and Life of the City of Stoke-on-Trent – started from a simple observation: Stoke-on-Trent is often discussed in terms of what it lacks, rather than what it already has.

Its central argument was that the city’s challenge is not a shortage of assets, but a failure to recognise, connect and invest in those it already possesses – from its six distinct towns and industrial heritage to its municipal architecture and existing buildings.

Six years on, that feels particularly relevant as the architectural profession marks World Architecture Day on October 5, this year under the theme ‘Housing is a Human Right, Build it’.

Six towns, one city

Stoke-on-Trent is not a conventional city with a single centre. It is a polycentric collection of six towns – Hanley, Burslem, Stoke, Longton, Tunstall and Fenton – each with its own history and identity.

Dean’s dissertation argued that this does not have to be a weakness. Instead, the six towns could become complementary centres, connected into a coherent whole rather than competing to replicate the traditional city-centre model.

That framing is reflected in current planning, with the council’s draft City Centre Masterplan treating the city centre as one of several urban centres, each with a distinct role.

This means thinking about what makes a place successful beyond its retail offer. Town centres need people living in them, working in them and spending time in them.

Housing where people already are

One of the dissertation’s clearest proposals was to bring homes back into and around the town centres.

The idea was not simply to build more houses, but to create mixed-use neighbourhoods where housing sits alongside shops, businesses, community services and public spaces. Crucially, it called for a mix of housing types and affordability, helping to create places that are genuinely lived in rather than simply developed.

That is where the theme of World Architecture Day feels particularly relevant. If housing is a human right, the question is not simply how many homes we can build. It also means asking what kind of places we are creating for people to live in.

Good housing needs to be connected to the things that make everyday life work: transport, employment, shops, green space, community facilities and places to meet. And in Stoke-on-Trent, some of those opportunities already exist.

Reuse what we already have

The dissertation also argued strongly against continuing to demolish the city’s historic fabric, suggesting that former industrial buildings could instead become places to live and work.

It highlighted sites such as Amsterdam’s NDSM Wharf, where a former industrial site has been given a new life through creative and mixed uses.

That principle of adaptive reuse is particularly powerful in the context of the housing crisis. Building new homes does not always have to mean starting from scratch. Existing buildings and previously developed sites can offer opportunities to create homes while retaining the character and identity of the places in which they sit.

Today, regeneration proposals for Spode include homes, workspace and public areas, while the nearby Goods Yard site has been redeveloped along similar lines. At Chatterley Whitfield, meanwhile, the former colliery Dean compared with Germany’s Zollverein complex, the council is developing proposals for a heritage and clean-energy hub.

Architecture is about more than buildings

Dean’s dissertation ultimately makes a broader argument about the role of architecture, going beyond designing individual buildings to the relationship between buildings, streets, public spaces and the people who use them.

While architecture cannot resolve a city’s economic or political challenges alone, it can shape how a place feels, influencing how people use it and how attractive it is to residents and businesses.

The dissertation called for better public spaces, improved walkability and stronger connections between the six towns, arguing that the city should be designed around people, creating places where residents can meet, spend time and feel a sense of pride.

That is also the wider challenge for architects today. The housing crisis cannot be solved by architects alone, but architecture has an important role to play in asking what good housing looks like, where it should be located and how it can contribute to more equitable, sustainable and connected communities.

Six years ago, Dean’s dissertation was, at its heart, an argument for looking differently at the city we already have. Perhaps the opportunity for Stoke-on-Trent now is not to become a different city, but to make better use of the one it already is – reusing its buildings, bringing life back into its centres and creating homes and neighbourhoods that put people at the heart of the city. So, Let’s strike the conversation;

What does home mean to you, and what makes it special?

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