Creating a slice of Devon near Exeter

Posted Posted in Guest Blog, News

James Armitage talks about the proposals for Sandycote, a development of 44 new houses arranged around a village green.  The project was undertaken in conjunction with Create Streets, for the developer Latis Homes.  The scheme has recently received planning permission and attracted much praise from the East Devon Planning Committee. Sandycote – the green We […]

Creating Streets in Lewes: embracing the texture, variety and radical spirit of Lewes to create a new type of neighbourhood

Posted Posted in Case Studies, Guest Blog, News

The Phoenix, a low-car ‘gentle density’ development in East Sussex, presents a radical alternative to most development, but remains rooted in place, writes Human Nature’s Anthony Pearce At the pen of the visiting writer, places are often reduced to their most immediate and famous elements, creating imaginary neatness and homogeneity. In the case of Lewes, […]

Safe Streets Survey

Posted Posted in News

We were recently approached by ADAM Architecture to launch a nationwide survey on street safety. The design of our streets & squares really influences where we choose to walk, cycle or spend time making them busy or empty. The #SafeStreets survey aims to identify streets and places where people do & don’t feel safe across […]

Restiching Dresden: Coventry’s German twin city on the Elbe

Posted Posted in Case Studies, News

Leon Furkert of the Dresden Historical Society tells the story of Dresden’s renaissance At our recent Restitch conference in Coventry, Leon Furkert from the Dresden Historical Society, spoke movingly about ‘how the city was given its heart back’, about the citizen-led and locally popular rebuilding of Dresden’s Frauenkirche and old towns. An ‘optional extra’ during […]

Creating home: a Community Land Trust development in rural West Dorset

Posted Posted in Guest Blog, News

Sheila Hawkins writes about the marvellous home-making work of the Broadwindsor Group Parish Community Land Trust with some additional thoughts from Alison Ward of Middlemarch Community Led Housing and Nicholas Boys Smith. At the beginning of September 2023 families with smiling faces  began moving into to their brand new homes at Northcombe Lea in Drimpton, […]

Kingston renaissance?

Posted Posted in Architecture, News

Timothy Smith and Jonathan Taylor discuss the genesis and ongoing success of their traditional design course at Kingston University as it passes its thirteenth birthday. In 2011 we established the first traditional design studio in a RIBA accredited mainstream educational institution for over 80 years.  At Kingston University we have pioneered a course of traditional […]

Planning says no

Posted Posted in Guest Blog, News, Planning

Hastings resident, Dr Graeme Davis, reflects on his recent attempts to create a new home…  If Hastings Town Council had not demolished the heart of Old Town Hastings it would probably now be a World Heritage Site. Slum clearance in the 1930s allowed the Council to buy, at minimal cost, 191 old houses in the […]