Help us fall in love with the future

Imagination is the engine of human progress. But it often feels like the future’s being cancelled before we’ve had a chance to picture it. 

With so little time left to stay under the two degree climate target, and with global biodiversity in a perilous state, we need urgent action to shape a greener, healthier, more hopeful future.  

So how do we create towns and cities where nature and people can truly flourish?

According to environmental activist and writer Rob Hopkins, the message is simple: forget the doom-and-gloom. What we need is to cultivate longing — by creating a vision of the future so enticing that people want to help build it.

Because, as US philosopher and activist bell hooks said, “what we cannot imagine cannot come into being”.

That’s the idea at the heart of our next event.

On Wednesday 10th June, join Stride Treglown and Avon Wildlife Trust as we bring together leading voices from design, ecology, and futures-thinking for an afternoon of ideas and conversation in Bath.

Together, we’ll explore what a nature-rich future might look like, how certain towns and cities are getting it right, and how built environment professionals like you can help imagine a better future into existence.

It’s space to think, share ideas, and reframe the notion of what’s possible.

Learn from inspiring people making it happen

Rob Hopkins will open the event with a special recorded message, before a series of talks from those who have brought their imagination into being for a better natural world.

• Hannah Bourne-Taylor, award-winning campaigner, author, and bird conservationist whose swift brick campaign is changing national building policy — proof that imagination and a compelling narrative can move institutions.
• Kunle Barker, co-founder of Natural Places, who works with organisations including Natural England and Related Argent to connect nature, housing, wellbeing, and long-term value in practical, scalable ways.
• Andrew Grant, founder of both Grant Associates and the Forest of Imagination festival, and designer of Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, brings a lifetime of thinking about what it means to put nature at the heart of built places.
• Leah McNally, CEO of Avon Wildlife Trust, led the redevelopment of three urban nature reserves in London. With a focus on helping people engage with nature, Leah has created award winning programmes to help young people from diverse backgrounds access opportunities in nature recovery.
• Adrian Wong, regenerative planting specialist, keen to replicate natural ecosystems to benefit biodiversity and make our towns and cities more resilient for future generations.
• Natalie Fée, multi-award-winning environmentalist, Time Out London’s ‘Green Goddess’ columnist, and author of the Amazon best-seller, How to Save the World for Free, and one of The Observer’s ‘50 New Radicals’ in the UK.
• Rob Delius, architect and sustainability lead at Stride Treglown, has spent his career turning ideas into action — from winning the RIBA ‘Imagine-Bath’ competition to staging ‘Sinking House’ and later, ‘Funeral for Nature’, an international event which brought biodiversity loss into sharp focus.

The panel discussion will be chaired by Dr Penny Hay, Professor of Imagination at Bath Spa University and co-founder of Forest of Imagination who has spent her career making the case that imagination is not a luxury, but a necessity.

So come along. Share your ideas. And help us all fall in love with the future.

Find out more and book your ticket here.