How our home delivery habit re-shaped the world – SGP’s James Nicholls featured in The Guardian

We were delighted to see James Nicholls, Managing Partner of Stephen George + Partners (SGP) featured in an excellent piece about e-commerce and logistics in The Guardian. James was interviewed by Samanth Subramanian about the enormous pressures logistics operators are under to meet customer demand.

The lack of accessible logistics space in high-population areas is already piling pressure on online retailers and logistics operators struggling to site last-mile distribution hubs to meet consumer demand for cost-effective and speedy same-day delivery. Added to this, the Government has set a target of building one million new homes by 2020, putting even more pressure on available land and inevitably driving up density levels in high-demand areas. This asks a big question of retailers and operators: how do they plan to get ‘stuff’ promptly and smoothly to customers in areas of housing expansion?

One solution, as outlined by James in The Guardian’s piece could be the mixed-use Shed of the Future, which would incorporate housing, retail, transport and logistics. “Beds and sheds,” he says, “like the model villages of the 19th century.” 

SGP’s vision, dubbed v.35, has echoes of those original model villages, the internet replacing the factory around which the community thrives and logistics facilities forming an intrinsic part of a wider framework comprising a sustainable, inclusive and mixed-use, multi-occupancy environment, delivered as essential infrastructure and serviced by multi modes of transport.

You can read the full article in The Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/21/how-our-home-delivery-habit-reshaped-the-world

For more on Shed of the Future and echoes of the Victorian model villages, read James’s article here: https://www.stephengeorge.co.uk/blog/the-model-solution/

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