Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people aged 10 to 18 from across the country.

This week Oliver discusses modern housing developments in Dorset.

Call it nitpicking, but homogenised housing is one of the greatest threats to Dorset’s cultural identity.

Under the Opening Doors campaign, a target has been set for a whopping 20,000 good quality homes to be built by 2033.

I accept there is an obvious demand for affordable housing and my propositions would obviously affect the affordability of such housing.

However, I doubt any sane individual’s dream of Dorset is plastering pristine countryside with rows of McMansions.

Neither do I condone handing the design over to whichever urban design company deems themselves qualified – we have seen the consequences of that first hand with projects such as the lasers.

A 2017, consultation found 70 per cent of people calling the lasers “poor” or “terrible”, whilst 43 per cent claimed they were ineffective.

If modern architects and planners cannot be trusted to provide a modern alternative to the fairy lights, I’d like to know if they can be trusted to do the same with local housing.

My criticism of modern architecture is that it lacks a lot of soul – and whilst the sense of community comes with time and takes generations to germinate, rows of brick houses don’t have a lot of potential to mature into something greater; the housing is built purely to fill a demand – and it shows.

We must pay attention to the lessons of the past and tune into its aesthetic to keep our county beautiful and unique.

Let our architecture reflect King George III’s favourite holiday destination.

We cannot not cling onto the past in some delusion of nostalgia but look forward propelled by our past triumphs.

Houses being even just ‘inspired’ by Dorset’s past is a step in the right direction as it is a step away from the brutalist towers like those in Courtlands.

Some local companies could be supported by using materials like Portland Stone.

Life imitates art, so soulless architecture to fill demand will inevitably end in soulless communities – communities who will live, have kids, pay taxes and die.

By Oliver Streather- Paul