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Vision for a regenerative programme of forestry and building maintenance at Hazel Hill Wood

This afternoon I met with two trustees of Hazel Hill Wood to develop some ideas for a funding bid to support more regenerative use of timber to maintain…

#18 Hazel Hill Wood – Dawn chorus sonic lockdown therapy- show-notes

30 minutes of uninterrupted dawn chorus Hazel Hill Wood, recorded at the end of March. Hazel Hill is woodland nature reserve and education centre helping frontline staff develop…

#18 Hazel Hill Wood – Dawn chorus sonic lockdown therapy

30 minutes of uninterrupted dawn chorus Hazel Hill Wood, recorded at the end of March. Hazel Hill is woodland nature reserve and education centre helping frontline staff develop…

Notes from a systems design workshop at Hazel Hill

On Saturday at the Hazel Hill Autumn Conservation weekend I ran a systems design workshop as a wet-weather activity. Here are my notes and observations from the session….

Chamber music in the woods

Yesterday I was feeling particularly sad about the loss of live music during lockdown and the stories of musicians who just don’t have any work at the moment….

If you go down to the woods today

It will probably be very muddy. At least it was for my first visit of the year to Hazel Hill Woods. Recent rain has made the forest wetter…

Hazel vs. Hornbeam (the fate of best-laid plans)

  A recent weekend of conservation work Hazel Hill Woods has revealed to me another woodland analogy for the struggles of daily life, and how we might overcome…

Choppin’, loppin’, circus and swing – notes from Hazel Hill Autumn Conservation weekend 2015

Last weekend 38 people came down to Hazel Hill for our annual Autumn Conservation weekend for two days of woodland conservation and human restoration. We design the weekend…

Hazel Hill Family Adventure Weekend

I’ve just returned a wonderful weekend in the woods, the first ever Hazel Hill Family Adventure Weekend. The aim of the weekend was to give kids the chance…

Notes from Hazel Hill/Slow Learning for teaching sustainability

I recently returned from a conservation weekend at Hazel Hill wood, the sixth such weekend in which I have participated, and a visit that prompted some more thoughts…

Desertification versus dessertification

Desertification = a real word that refers to the process where fertile land becomes desert, typically due to drought, deforestation, or poor land management. It can also be…

Some things you might not know about the Regenerative Design Lab

In the coming weeks I’m going to be talking quite a lot about the Regenerative Design Lab because we have a new cohort starting next week. Some of…

An experiment in foundational capital

Last year I read about foundational capital in Lean Logic. It’s the idea of the capital that systems depend upon to live. For us Earthlings it’s clean air…

Fellow in Regenerative Design

In October 2022 I was appointed 1851 Fellow in Regenerative Design. Along with Michael Pawlyn, we are the first two people to hold this title. The aim of…

Regenerative Design, Net-Zero Design Error-Free Design and Swing Dancing

Sometimes when I write on this blog I like to distill my thoughts around one topic. But when there’s lots going on I prefer to write in more…

Restorative versus regenerative design

Restorative and regenerative are two words I am hearing used interchangeably. Both are relevant to engineering and design. Both are approaches to design that are valuable. But they…

Four characteristics of regenerative systems

Work on regenerative thinking progresses on all fronts. Book writing with my friend James on Monday (read his excellent blog on this process), developing regenerative practice at Hazel…

Start by lighting the fire

It’s the first thing we do at Hazel Hill Wood. Light the fire for everyone else. A clutch of tiny twigs, a handful of finger-thick branches, and some…

Sustainability is no-longer enough

Today I am sharing more of the thinking that went into my vision question for Hazel Hill Wood: what if we became a centre for regenerative practice? It…

Setting a vision question rather than a vision statement

It is my role as Chair of Hazel Hill Trust to be the ‘vision holder’ for the project. There are lots of ways you can interpret what this…

Towards Regenerative Conceptual Design

I have had the great fortune of having spent three weeks in France, a good portion of it cycling. Touring is a great way to leave behind your…

If you are stuck in the weeds, look at the ecosystem

This morning I’m writing about how action in the context ecological crisis will sometimes feel a long way from anything to do with nature. I wrote this week…

Human-scale chalk stream restoration.

On this afternoon’s walk we had the joy of arriving at a chalk stream. We had started high on the Ridgeway and descended quickly down through the Devil’s…

Connection with nature through drawing

I drew this ash tree at Hazel Hill Wood last weekend. Though it rises opposite a bench where I like to have a morning coffee, I have never…

What if we had a seasonally adjusted workweek?

This week I wrote about observing the seasons and how these might cause us to reflect on the patterns we adopt in our lives. Yesterday, I was exploring…

Inspiration from balance : when the day = night

This week day equalled night. I see the seasons as sine and cosine waves. Peaks and troughs for different phenomena offset from one another. At the summer solstice,…

Training course – Introduction to Conceptual Design for Structural Engineers

This course, which I deliver at Constructivist for the Institution of Structural Engineers is my longest running conceptual design training course. It is an introductory course, which splits…

Book notes – The Hidden Life of Trees

It feels right as I take on my new role at Hazel Hill Wood to read the Hidden Life of Trees. This is an evolving post based on…

Olafur Eliasson at the Tate + reflections on my own work

This week I have had the feeling that I have been struggling recently to find focus on my creative work. I have lots of projects on at the…

Analogue skills: fogotten powers

We live in a time of rapid and accelerating technological change. It is the age of digital, big data and smart technology. The digital zeitgeist is presented with…