Recrafting Farnham
Happy new 2016! The turning of the year is an opportunity to take a fresh look at Farnham.
Along with thinking about the traffic in Castle Street and what the East Street development is going to look like, have you ever wondered things like …
- Why are there so few public loos in the town centre? If there were more, where should they be?
- What would Bridge House look like as a Neoclassical building?
- the Brethren Meeting Hall: could it be the town archive? A local studies centre?
… and so on. Re-imaginings like these are important right now, while the emerging Local Plan and Farnham’s Neighbourhood Plan are under discussion. Change is coming, whether we like it or not.
On Saturday 30 January in the Barley Room at Farnham Maltings, local architects will run Recrafting Farnham: they will display their revisualisations for Farnham and encourage everyone to write or draw their own ideas and long-felt wants for the town. Please come along, take part in the community brainstorm and be part of the bigger picture for Farnham. Everyone is welcome – just pop in anytime between 10am and 4pm.
The architects will collate the results of the day, which will be presented to local councils at a further public event on 18 April. Recrafting Farnham is funded by RIBA Surrey Branch, which represents more than 500 architects; and by the RIBA Local Initiative Fund.
Organiser Laith Anayi of Stedman Blower Architects says: ‘Now is the time to instigate a healthy, proactive discussion on how we as a community can organically grow Farnham.
‘All of the issues which affect Farnham – housing, roads, schools, hospitals, public spaces, historic settings – are highly applicable elsewhere.
‘Recrafting Farnham will be a catalyst for creative thinking – leading to discussion about how we really want the town to develop.’
Jenny Peterson
Architectural Communities Coordinator
RIBA South/South East
T: +44 (0)750 146 6648/01892 515715
