THE team behind the Recrafting Farnham community brainstorm at the Farnham Maltings in January are working hard behind the scenes to digest the huge amount of suggestions and ideas for Farnham’s future.

Organised under the umbrella of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Recrafting Farnham began on Saturday, January 30, when almost 700 people packed into the Barley Room at Farnham Maltings.

A group of 20 local architects led by Laith Anayi of Stedman Blower Architects volunteered to help people to express their wishes for Farnham on Post-it notes, sketches, and notes.

Since then, people have provided even more ideas and the team is keen for people to continue doing so on its online Facebook page.

Around 300 comments have been received so far. In order of frequency, these were the main concerns expressed by Farnham residents:

• Traffic was by far the most frequently-mentioned concern - garnering twice the number of comments relating to pedestrianisation, which was the next most mentioned issue. Improved signposting was urged by several people.

• Pedestrianisation and pedestrian safety were felt by many to be the key to growth and success in the town centre.

• Housing - There were strongly-conflicting views on how to achieve more housing units. Views ranged from ‘Do not touch the Green Belt’ to reviewing the quality of some Green Belt land and clustering housing around farms.

• Improving facilities - A wide variety of comments, ranged from several asking for a secondary school in the town centre, plus more arts and sports facilities to a better sewage system.

• Green Farnham and funding for Suitable Alternative Natural Green Spaces (SANGS) - residents are keen to preserve the green spaces that they have; and to seek funding for them and for possible new areas.

• Farnham’s sense of identity - comments focused mainly on the core central historic area.

• Building design quality - several views including ‘no Disneyfication of the town centre’ and ‘more exciting design needed’.

To encourage people to give their views, the architects re-imagined areas of Farnham so that people could react to the ideas and provide their own and, according to the team, most visitors understood these were meant to be a springboard for their own thoughts.

A couple of the participating architects included underground roads in their ideas, which received thumbs-up from visitors. The ‘New Hart’ for Farnham imagined by Tim Clark - a mixed development of leisure, businesses and housing on the Central car park site – strongly divided opinion.

Central car park was the area most frequently mentioned in comments. Scott Brownrigg’s proposals for housing were approved of, as having the potential to join up the town. The most popular revisualisation was the amphitheatre in Farnham Park, by BWP Architects.

Mr Anayi said: “As architects, an important part of our role is to interpret the brief that we’re given. For Recrafting Farnham, instead of asking many questions to pull together ideas, we asked just one open question of the community using our revisualisations - ‘what would YOU like for your town?’

“We’re very aware that these comments are just a snapshot of views of the residents who came along on the day – but they are first steps towards engaging our community in discussion about what we really want for Farnham in the future.

“Representatives of Farnham Town Council and of Waverley District Council, plus Surrey County Council in the form of our mayor, Pat Frost came to the workshop and they listened and talked to people.

“The architects who took part are committed to keeping open the channels of communication that Recrafting Farnham has created.

“We’re particularly keen to look at how the town might best cope with development. The workshop flagged up the issue of housing spread in the Green Belt. An alternative is to further develop on currently built-up areas.

“But what density of development would actually be acceptable to the community? We’re thinking particularly about ‘Generation Y’ – people born between 1980 and 2000. How can Farnham’s development reflect their needs, now and in the future?

“By answering these questions, issues such as traffic and the Green Belt can be looked at in context.

“The architects are clear that what is needed is a masterplan of Farnham. A masterplan would be a long-term undertaking. In the meantime, we’re presenting our findings to date and asking a different demographic for their views. Recrafting Farnham is work in progress!”

The Recrafting Farnham architects are preparing further feedback on the workshop and ways to test attitudes towards development, for an event at Farnham Maltings on the evening of Monday, April 18.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

They have invited the researchers of Tomorrow’s Home, the ground-breaking study of changes in population, lifestyle and work and their impact on the built environment, to present their findings at the event. Tomorrow’s Home was funded by Grainger plc and ADAM Urbanism, part of ADAM Architecture. Robert Adam will chair the discussion.