CHILDREN at St Polycarp’s Primary School had the chance to bring their visions for the future of Farnham to life last week through the medium of Lego.

A group of local architects behind the ‘Recrafting Farnham’ community brainstorm event taking place at Farnham Maltings later this month have been visiting schools across the area to encourage youngsters to get involved with the development of their town.

Laith Anayi, director of Stedman Blower Architects and chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) South East region, said the St Polycarp’s session was great fun and the pupils worked “wonderfully” together designing houses on paper at scale and then building their designs in Lego.

“There was some brilliant designs and creative solutions,” he added. “Houses included chocolate fountain rooms, indoor swimming pools, gravity force rooms, playrooms, experiment rooms and even some bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens!”

Recrafting Farnham is calling on people of all ages to write, draw and talk about their ideas for the future of Farnham between 10am and 4pm on Saturday, January 30 at the Maltings.

The public will be encouraged to share their own ideas for the development of Farnham as well as discussing the ideas of a dozen architect practices - such as a new performance space in Farnham Park and closing The Borough to traffic at peak times.

Children will also be encouraged to give their ideas with Lego modelling, drawing opportunities and Minecraft for those who have iPads.

Mr Anayi continued: “Along with many others in the community, local architects have lots of ideas about possibilities for the future of Farnham.

“We must have conversations right now about how our town can grow and develop. Recrafting Farnham is an opportunity for everyone to understand that they have the freedom to visualise a different reality; and that you can contribute your own opinion about the future of where you live.

“Architects are trained to help people to make their ideas about the built environment into reality and are skilled in both detail and masterplanning.

“Recrafting Farnham will enable everybody to be included in this much-needed discussion about how we can progress with tackling key issues of housing, traffic flow and preserving historic spaces.”

Following the brainstorming event on January 30, the architects will put together everyone’s thoughts and re-present them at a further community event in the Maltings on April 18.