Faces Behind Northstowe: Katja Stille, director at Tibbalds

Northstowe is a town shaped not just by new homes and infrastructure, but by the people working behind the scenes to bring it to life. Faces Behind Northstowe is a new series celebrating the consultants, specialists and project partners whose expertise and collaboration are helping turn the vision for Northstowe into reality.

Katja Stille, director at Tibbalds

Our first face is Katja Stille, director at Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design. Supporting Northstowe’s growing pioneering, independent community, Tibbalds has provided ongoing masterplanning, urban design, and planning application support for phases Two and Three of the town, almost 10 years. This has involved planning everything from how streets are laid out to where parks, paths, and public spaces sit on the map.

ABOUT KATJA 

Katja joined the Northstowe project in February 2016, shortly after Homes England secured planning consent for Phase Two of the town. Tibbalds was appointed to produce a Design Code to guide how this part of Northstowe should come forward.

The brief was to turn the latest thinking on health and wellbeing and ‘place’ into something practical that planners, engineers and developers could go on to build and people could enjoy. Supporting this mission, Katja’s focus has been on making it easy for people to live active, healthy lives by helping to design a town that naturally encourages walking, cycling and spending time outdoors.

 

KATJA’S ROLE IN SHAPING NORTHSTOWE

Tibbalds are award-winning planning consultants, master planners, and urban designers. Katja’s role across Phases Two and Three spans both planning and design:

  • As a planner, she and the team help Homes England secure planning permissions and work through many conditions that come with them - the step-by-step work that keeps a large new development moving forward.

  • As a designer, she and the team help shape the vision and structure of Northstowe - how its streets and spaces connect, where key facilities sit, and how different neighbourhoods will feel on the ground.

  • Katja is also a recognised voice on the delivery of new towns, having given evidence on the role of good masterplanning in supporting sustainable growth at the House of Lords on the Future of New Towns. At Tibbalds, she has led award-winning planning and design work. Katja’s was part of the team named Planning Consultancy of the Year, helping turn ambitious ideas for new settlements into high-quality, deliverable places. 

Through the Design Codes, Katja and the team set clear expectations for developers, so that Northstowe works in everyday life as well as on paper.

 

DESIGNING FOR ACTIVE, HEALTHY LIVING

A big part of Katja’s work is about making active and healthy choices the easy choices. That includes:

  1. Prioritising walkable and cyclable routes, so residents can move around safely and sustainably.

  2. Planning for tree-lined streets that improve air quality, offer shade and create a more pleasant environment for walking and cycling.

  3. Locating everyday facilities, such as public toilets, adult and baby changing spaces, and drinking fountains, and ensuring they are placed in central, accessible locations, encouraging people to stay out and enjoy the town for longer. 

Katja has helped initiate plans for the Runway Lake and Neighbourhood Park, which will bring generous green and blue spaces to Northstowe as well as ‘the spaces in between’, including pocket parks, walking and cycling routes, planting, and materials. It’s all about making it easier for residents to walk, cycle and enjoy being outdoors close to home.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES TO DELIVER THE VISION 

Of course, planning, designing and delivering a new town the scale of Northstowe comes with its challenges. Many different parts of the project need to move forward at the same time, and Katja and Tibbalds have often pushed established boundaries to deliver this.

That has meant:

  • Working closely with a wide range of organisations that need to approve the plans and keeping everyone aligned on the vision.

  • Translating bold ideas about health and wellbeing into detailed, buildable plans.

  • Making sure technical requirements are met without losing sight of what it feels like to live in the town day to day.

Community voices are an essential part of that process. Engagement and consultation are key to shaping Northstowe’s character, so that the town reflects what residents want, not just what looks good on a drawing.

 

KATJA’S FAVOURITE THING ABOUT NORTHSTOWE

What Katja loves most about Northstowe is its ambition, especially around health and wellbeing, and the chance to see that vision move from plans to real streets and spaces. A highlight has been securing planning consent for Phases Three A and B, which pave the way for around 5,000 additional homes and a series of neighbourhoods - each with its own character. She’s particularly excited about how the large lake, extensive open spaces and walking and cycling routes will connect to form a green network across the town and to and from existing villages.

 

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Katja is excited to see key parts of the planned town centre come forward and bring to life the “heart” of Northstowe as it has been imagined. Housebuilding in Phase Two will help a larger community take root, also supporting a wider range of services, facilities and everyday activities. 

For Katja, Northstowe is a powerful example of what can be achieved when planners, designers, engineers, councils, partners and residents all work together towards a shared goal. It’s a reminder that the choices made on drawings today will shape how people live, move and connect in Northstowe for decades to come.