Charged in London. Grounded In Cornwall

Oh London, you never disappoint.

Last week I was at RICS Westminster for the launch of We Can Build A City - the feasibility report for Forest City, Britain's first proposed new city in fifty years.

We sponsored the event, and our MD John Brown spoke to a room of policymakers, politicians, planners and landowners about what it actually takes to ask a genuinely difficult question.

Outside, Westminster was crackling - backbenchers were dropping left, right and center. Inside, we were talking about building homes for a million people, twelve thousand acres of new native forest, and what Britain might look like if it stopped managing decline and started imagining something else entirely.

That's the "What If" we back at Innovation Nursery. The kind that invites challenge, attracts sceptics, and still somehow fills a room.

The rest of the week was gloriously unserious by comparison. NIGO at the Design Museum. Photo London. A very delicious margarita bar. A pub with an Irishman playing guitar who made strangers sing together (which is one of London's underrated superpowers). Food from approximately seven different countries in four days. Conversations with old friends and new ones, several of whom are now very interested in what's happening in Cornwall.

That last bit really matters. One thing London always gives me is reassurance. We're not disconnected down here in Cornwall. We're not behind. The conversations I had last week, about food systems, materials, built environment, about what comes next, those are the same conversations happening on our 140 acres in mid Cornwall - and I think we’re having more interesting ones, honestly.

But after a week, I was ready to come home. The noise, the pace, the sheer quantity of everything, I love it, and then I've had enough of it. For me, Cornwall isn't a retreat from the world. It's just a better place to think about it.

If you're curious about what we're building at Innovation Nursery, come and find out. The "What If" question is always open.

Lynne Raubenheimer - Creative Director at Innovation Nursery