Projects

National Highways “operate, maintain and improve” the country’s motorways and major A roads. Their operations affect all sectors of the population in complex ways, in collaboration with the Department for Transport. Therefore,National Highways are committed to accessible, transparent and creative approaches to public consultation. Moving away from rigid formulae, their interventions are designed to enhance community life, contributing educational and cultural value beyond expectations.

During a major redevelopment of the A428 (a road that connects Cambridge with Milton Keynes) BlockBuilders aided the infrastructure giant to design and implement an innovative public consultation strategy. We converted architectural drawings and geospatial data into a three-dimensional road model that players could explore using the video game Minecraft™.

The resulting render of the planned road network was our largest ‘world’ to date, taking 90 minutes to traverse in Minecraft™. The journey would be twice as long in real life.

This game experience toured the East of England during the eight-week consultation period in summer 2019. Our suite of laptops and VR headsets appeared at 12 consultation events, which were attended by 2,500 people in total.

BlockBuilders also ensured that young people could engage with the planning process on their terms, providing in-game feedback while learning about architectural engineering by .  facilitating two workshops in local primary schools and making the model digitally available for remote users. Some of their parents and guardians even had a turn!

By publicising our Minecraft™ model both at consultation events and online, Highways disrupted traditional models of public consultation and gained the support of new audiences that may not have otherwise engaged with their operations.