As Lead Artist for the public art programme at Springstead Village in Cambridge, our approach takes the hedgerow as both ecological system and cultural metaphor – a framework for weaving public art, play, and community identity across an entirely new neighbourhood.
The commission has produced a suite of approved designs to be realised in phases across the development. These include sculptural kissing gates and giant climbing stiles, amphitheatre-like benches, hedgerow houses and pooh-sticks bridges – interventions that are playful, interactive, and rooted in biodiversity and ecological care. Rather than stand-alone sculptures, they are conceived as embedded features of the public realm that evolve with the landscape over time.
The work is grounded in extensive community engagement. Our two-year programme Search for the Hedge Witch, in collaboration with artist Kirsty Badenoch, invited schools, youth groups and residents to co-author a new mythology for the site, reframing environmental care as an imaginative, collective act. Alongside this, hedge-laying workshops and restoration activities have already brought residents into the making process, embedding skills, stewardship and ecological value.
Although the artworks are being delivered in stages aligned to the village’s construction programme, the strategy, designs, and engagement process demonstrate our ability to use public art as a tool for identity-building, ecological resilience and social connection – a methodology directly relevant to Barnet’s ambition for a heritage-driven trail that is both playful and community-anchored.