BOSC Garden Village
First a military town, then an Eco-town, a Green Town, and now a Healthy New Town, the etymology of Whitehill & Bordon has pulled in almost every conceivable direction. Urban Place Lab has helped to identify additional land holdings within the MoD ownership north of the town, that have a capacity to function as an independent Garden Village.
Although is a much maligned term, the land ownership and patient capital model espoused at Whitehill and Bordon, could allow for this to become a reality, more closely aligned to the original garden village principles of Parker, Unwin and Howard, than many of its contemporaries.
As a platform for exploring a renewal in local Hampshire vernacular, an independent settlement with a central ribbon of sport and recreation, could allow for innovation through the reinterpretation of classic garden settlement design, looking at a more dynamic range of property sizes than are conventionally developed, with the infrastructure of village life at its core. The first element of this, the BOSC (Bordon and Oakhanger Social Club) has already been built and opened to the community by our joint venture clients in 2018.