How to Create Housing for Community over Profit - with Jeremy McLeod of Nightingale Housing

What happens when an architect develops their own projects, stops chasing profit, and starts designing for people, planet, and purpose? Jeremy McLeod, founder of Breathe and Nightingale Housing, shares how a single prototype sparked a housing movement in Australia. From ditching car parks and private laundries to designing rooftop commons and slow elevators, Nightingale flips the development playbook — proving that sustainability, affordability, and community aren't just compatible, but catalytic. With a waitlist over 21,000 strong, this conversation reveals how one radical idea changed the market and inspired a new model of ethical housing.Subscribe to Most Podern on:Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3zYvX2lRZOpHcZW41WGVrpApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/most-podern-podcast/id1725756164Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@MostPodernInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/most.podernLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/most-podernKeywordsJeremy McLeod, Nightingale Housing, affordable housing, nonprofit developer, ethical development, triple bottom line, sustainable housing, Melbourne architecture, car-free housing, shared laundries, rooftop commons, housing affordability crisis, build-to-sell, housing without profit, real estate innovation, alternative housing models, climate-resilient design, housing as a human right, community-focused developmentChapters0:00 — Why Profit Gets in the Way2:00 — Building the Prototype Without a Developer5:00 — When 1,000 People Lined Up8:00 — Launching Nightingale from a Manifesto10:00 — Triple Bottom Line: Sustainability, Community, Affordability14:00 — Nonprofit Development in a For-Profit World17:30 — Why Australia's Housing Market Is Broken21:00 — The Rising Cost of Homeownership24:00 — Designing for Community, Not Just Residents28:00 — Rooftop Laundry, Not Penthouses31:00 — Slow Elevators and Street-Level Encounters34:00 — System Redesign: Finance, Rules, and Ballots36:00 — Powering Every Building with Renewables38:00 — The Market Starts Paying Attention41:00 — Ditching Car Parks for Shared Cars44:00 — Lessons in Scaling: Trade-offs and Adaptations51:00 — Designing Meaningful Imperfection54:00 — What It Takes to Start Something Bold56:00 — The Future Will Ask: Why Didn’t We Fight Harder?LinksJeremy McLeod (LinkedIn) - https://au.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-mcleod-architectNightingale Housing - https://www.nightingalehousing.org/Breathe Architecture - https://www.breathe.com.au/Let My People Go Surfing - https://www.patagonia.com/product/let-my-people-go-surfing-revised-paperback-book/BK067.html