THE PHOENIX VISION

“It’s time to do development better. Bringing heart and soul and environmental rigour, as if people and planet mattered. As if the veneer of ‘everything will be OK’ disappeared and we took action instead. As if we thought long term not just of now. And as if we believed in the sense of place.”

These plans, bespoke designs and strategies for the Phoenix and its future community and economy, seek to celebrate Lewes and its context in the beautiful South Downs National Park.

Constructed primarily in sustainable timber, much of which will come from Sussex woodlands, embellished by other natural materials such as stone, flint, chalk and clay, built by local people, and led, managed and funded by local people, the Phoenix is naturally and necessarily of its place. It seeks to capture the deep spirit of Lewes, learn from its historic street structure and architectural diversity, and enhance its extraordinary landscape and wider ecosystem. This blighted, derelict and wickedly challenging brownfield land will be revitalised, healing a wound.

But there is new here too. We may not be ‘beginning the world over again’ in Paine’s poetic phrase, but the way we design and make places, homes, other buildings and infrastructures, even the way we live, share and co-exist in communities, urgently need a rethink.

The Phoenix takes the dangerous imperatives of the climate and nature emergencies and puts them at the heart of the brief. We have sought to transpose them into opportunities for better design, better placemaking and ultimately healthier and better living. The broad choice of accessible homes, the public space, new flood defences and rain gardens, river walk, beautiful streets, squares and courtyards, community gardens, community canteen, employment spaces, and co-mobility services, combine to represent a new and regenerative way to make a place, strengthen community, and catalyse a more productive creative and circular local economy for Lewes fit for the 21st century.

These plans and the wider development process associated with them, create myriad opportunities to train and employ people in enduring enterprises and chart pathways out of disadvantage, especially for young people. They will serve to house a wide community of families well and affordably while improving the everyday quality of life for all who live, work and play here.

It is time to do development better. Bringing heart and soul and environmental rigour, as if people and planet mattered. As if ‘this veneer of everything will be OK’ disappeared and we took action instead. As if we thought long term not just of now.

And as if we believed in the sense of place.