East Hampshire District Council appointed Feria Urbanism to design and deliver a public consultation process to inform a permanent wayfinding scheme for the Green Grid and Green Loop at Whitehill & Bordon.

The multidisciplinary project brings together professionals from all three tiers of local government — town, district and county — alongside experts in landscape design, architecture, graphic design, sign-making and fabrication.

Our initial role was to act as a conduit between the design team and the public. However, as the project evolved and our conversations with residents deepened, we began to ask broader questions. Many participants wanted to explore their connection to this so-called natural loop, prompting us to challenge them: “This is an ex-military training ground. Is this really nature? What does the word ‘nature’ even mean?”

The dialogue that emerged addressed local concerns but also questioned the language used to describe the natural world — how narrative and history appear, and whether the word “ecology”, often used to describe human–nature interactions, might better apply to the type of new town plan shaping Whitehill & Bordon’s future.

This more philosophical approach to consultation enabled us  to communicate complex ideas to the wider design team and client. In turn, it influenced both the materiality and visual design language of the wayfinding scheme.