Covid-19 is in truth our fourth modern crisis, exposing and concentrating the three already before us when it struck: public health, biodiversity and climate. It is this quartet of deeply connected and fundamentally ecological stresses that demands systemic change in our recovery. Shaping Better Places is the template we use and our answer to a post-Covid future.

‘If we’re building places that make people ill and we are, what possible hope do we have for a resilient future? By thinking ecologically, we can design places that are healthy for people because they are healthy for wildlife.’ Catch Ian Boyd’s talk on taking an ecological approach to public health and development. Designing Habitat for Humans at Futurebuild 2020 now available on CoLab.

Public Announcement…! Sandown Bay’s grassroots community spectacular is go! Join Arc in the Discovery Bay ‘marquee’ at Hullabaloo At Home where we’ll help you build your own Biosphere and a wild new Roomiverse!

As the cracks appear in the business as usual approach, maybe it’s a chance to revisit the norms.

Our free and homespun celebration of people, place and the festive season is back! Join us all at Sandown Bay’s cliff-top Battery for this year’s The Christmas Garden…

Signs of change! The Willow Walk is a 1km case study of shaping better places! Part-living field study guide, community project, urban rewilding and we believe a good example of how businesses can help to build natural and social capital on their doorstep.

Fridays for Future… Climate crisis and biodiversity loss is finally going global. Whether or not we are personally interested in the environment doesn’t matter, we are ALL in it and part of it and are affected by it. People are nature, simple. Find out about it, make informed decisions and recognise that it’s no longer business as usual.

Our Isle of Wight’s end of summer bring-your-own-bucket celebration of people, place and nature, Under The Pier in Ryde was a packed and happy, species-rich spectacle last week with around 600 visitors on board with dozens of species discovered!

While Artecology are out at sea with Marineff and half of Arc are out on dormice detail, Claire’s been staring at walls…looking at the team’s back catalogue & current work, old public art to Artecology biograffiti and bee walls and how we’re rethinking the concrete tide. Luckily she hit a wall and this blog ends before she got on to our #rewilding work! Walls the Album continues later this summer.

Under the Pier in a Biosphere… where people, wildlife and place come together!

The Isle of Wight has been recognised by UNESCO for its outstanding natural and cultural capital, and its creative ways in helping people and nature thrive together.