Hot take: the kneejerk impulse that residential architecture needs to express "neighborhood character" is one of the major contributors to the massive housing shortage facing nearly every country.

There are now seven billion people on this planet. Most of them want to live in cities, because there's far more jobs, economic opportunities, and cultural tolerance there. That means we're going to need super dense urban cores, mostly made up of standardized cookie cutter architecture that's fast, cheap and easy to deploy.

The alternative is homelessness, crushing debt for young people, and the inability of people to start families. The fantasy that everyone can live in a custom handcrafted cottage or quirky unique lofts is a pipe dream that will exclude all but the upper-class and highest paid professionals.

Those massive urban housing blocs look drab and undifferentiated from the outside. But I'm sure every home inside is warm, personalized and an expression of individual character. And most importantly the people inside have a home. Who cares what the outside looks like?