About this episode
We have a climate crisis, housing shortages, and increasing urban disconnection, we need a pioneering radical approach to development that puts nature and human flourishing at its core. Human Nature, led by Joanna Yarrow, are creating living, breathing ecosystems that challenge how we normally go about urban design."We've boxed ourselves into a corner by having the starting point that we are separate from nature," Joanna explains. Places should not just exist alongside nature, they should be fundamentally integrated with it.Human Nature has identified three critical place typologies that could transform how we live. These are urban neighbourhoods, rural clusters, and new settlements. Their flagship project, the Phoenix in Lewes, East Sussex, demonstrates what's possible when we reimagine development."Places aren't just buildings. They are infrastructure, streets, parks, alleyways, rivers – a collection of components that includes hardware like pavements and water systems, and software like community services."The Phoenix project is a testament to this holistic approach. Spanning 7.9 hectares of former industrial land, it will become the UK's largest bio-based development, featuring 685 homes constructed primarily from natural materials like timber, hemp, and lime.But this isn't just about sustainable construction. It's about redesigning entire lifestyles. "We want to create the optimal precondition for a better, healthy, and more sustainable way of life." This means designing neighbourhoods where car dependency becomes unnecessary, where food production is integrated, and where nature isn't an afterthought but the central organising principle.Her background – growing up in a 64-acre working wood in Sussex – deeply influences her approach. "Nature was my playground," she recalls. This personal connection translates into a professional mission to mainstream sustainable living.The challenge, she argues, isn't technological. "Most of this is not rocket science. Most of this has been done already. We don't need to reinvent the wheel." Instead, we need collective will and a systemic reimagining of development.We should review the concept of “developers” to be not just extractive profit-makers, but as stewards with critical societal duty. "You are shaping people's lives for dec
