‘The ultimate goal of all art is the building!’

So began the Bauhaus Manifesto, written by Walter Gropius, setting out the principles of the Bauhaus School of Design, the most influential and utopian art school ever to exist.

When our socialist predecessors designed housing, they were designing a better future for everybody. They saw that a house is not just somewhere to exist and to sleep; it is somewhere people can live. They designed houses with space and light; houses with gardens; houses that are beautiful.

We need to recover that confidence. We live in a world designed for profit. Commodities are designed to fly off the shelves. Buildings are designed to extract the highest price. Towns are designed not for people to live in, but for people to buy in.

Any kind of design that runs counter to this is radical in itself. Anything that opens our minds, instead of opening our wallets, is truly revolutionary.

The greatest tool of the socialist is their imagination. Art, design, architecture, writing and craft can all be used to foster the imagination, teaching us about the world we live in, and the better world that is possible.