The relationship between people and what for ease of exposition at this point I will call the rest of Nature is a common talking point in the media and political debate. Recently, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have brought the issues involved into sharp relief and houses, and the way we live in them, are often included in debates about mitigating climate change or coping with the pandemic. We are exhorted to ‘stay at home’ to avoid spreading infection and to use less energy to heat our homes to avert climate change. However, the theme of this book is that these issues are relatively neglected in research and policy in the housing field, partly because of the lack of a coherent and widely accepted framework for analysing the issues involved. Therefore, the aim of this book is to formulate a framework for thinking about housing processes and outcomes, as well as the policies and programmes of housing agencies and governments, which considers the relationship between people, their homes and the physical, biological and material context or Nature. Emphasis on the links between living in houses and Nature is not new. Architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto have drawn attention to some of the issues involved that have influenced their designs. The philosopher John Dewey has discussed the importance of inhabitation in a place in the process of learning and developed his view of the aims of education from this base. However, the argument here is that there is a lack of a coherent framework to investigate the issues involved in a way that can be studied and form the basis of policy. Some frameworks already exist that claim to do this, but as will become apparent throughout the discussion here, they each have their problems and shortcomings that need to be overcome. Further, it is argued that such an approach is necessary to understand issues that have been the traditional focus of housing research and policy, such as homelessness or affordability, that have rarely been considered to be related to climate change or other ‘environmental’ challenges.