Top 10: Street furniture
Street furniture is so much part of our landscape that we no longer notice it.
We use it day in and day out; we sit on benches with our friends, throw our rubbish into unimpressive bins and walk in the light given by the unassuming street lamps. We leave our bikes in simple bicycle racks and think nothing of it.
Landscape designers often try to hide those pieces of architecture, to put it out of the way, behind the plants, in the shade, treating them like the house furniture’s ugly sisters.
Looking at the article’s title you probably think: “what can be exciting about a bench, bike rack or rubbish bin?”
If so, you cannot be more wrong!
Here are the top ten most inventive, quirky, crazy and inspirational designs of the street furniture!
10. Koru Rack
Koru Bicycle rack looks like a giant fern’s fronds coming up from the ground. The curly “fronds” are covered in plastic coating in various shades of green. Their varying height makes the rack useful for the users of different bicycles. The design is very functional and simple – the cyclists just need to lock their bikes to the “fronds”. The rack is quite versatile – its length can be adjusted according to the needs of the place and the number of potential users. The Koru Rack was a winning entry by Jonathan Hall for the Awesome Bike Rack Competition.
Koru Bike Rack
9. [In]visible bins
Rubbish bins are rarely beautiful and even the most inventive one still contains not the most attractive content inside! The team from a Slovak Landscape architecture studio 2ka came up with the idea of hiding them – quite completely! Their “[in]visible bins “ are covered in mirrors to reflect their environment. As a result, they blend in so well, that they become, in fact, invisible!
[In
With this lovely, imaginative bench by Naho designs you get to sit on a flower petal! It looks great on a lawn, it is funny, and most of all it is pink – a very rare color in street furniture indeed! It is also quite versatile – the users can sit on the petals or inside the flower. It certainly looks comfortable!
Naho Design’s Flower Bench
7. Human-shaped street lamps
Those incredible street lamps were designed in anticipation of 2008 Olympics in Mudanjiang City, China. Some of them resemble the athletes playing sports, the others are shaped like sexy women! All are all very colorful and frankly speaking, a bit kitsch – but still fun and inventive!
Human Shaped Street Lamps
6. Log chop bench
Designed by David Long and Antoine Morris, carved from a log by a professional Lumberjill (female Lumberjack), it sounds incredibly tough. Thanks to red, hand-sewn upholstery prepared by a motorcycle saddle maker, it actually provides quite a comfortable sitting space. The log is stained white, with three red seats carved in it with surprising precision. It is a pity it was just a one-off piece!
Log Chop Bench
Log Chop Bench
5. The Bend Bench
Brought to us by Attila Jonas, it is surely the most versatile bench ever made. It can be rotated both vertically and horizontally. The rotation in the horizontal plane allows the user to choose the place to sit and the view from it, flipping one side of the bench up provides shelter from the elements. Flipping it back down allows for another person to sit on the other side. This piece of street furniture is also described as ‘part kinetic sculpture’.
The Bend Bench
The Bend Bench
4. Giant Comb Bike Stand
This amazing bike rack is where simple functionality meets art. The very realistically looking giant comb can be found on the streets of Roanoke, Virginia, USA. It is hand-crafted from wood and weighs 400 pounds, which makes it quite vandal-proof! Besides being so inventive and quirky, it is actually rather easy to use – the bikes are just parked between the teeth of the comb!
Comb Bike Rack
3. The rolling bench
One of the most imaginative pieces of furniture I have seen so far! Extremely innovative and incredibly practical, the rolling bench will save your trousers getting wet after a rainy day. Turning a small handle on the side will turn the seat of the bench, revealing the dry side. It proves that the best ideas are truly the simplest ones!
The Rolling Bench
2. Marguerite – Bike Rack
Another plant-inspired design; this time imitating a part giantmarguerite/daisy flower emerging from the ground. A pleasing form that has a very practical function – it serves as a bike rack! Simply put your vehicle in one of the slots between the white petals and move them to secure it. A great example of form and function working nicely together!
Marguerite Bike Rack
Marguerite Bike Rack
1. Fresh Chair
An incredibly futuristic idea for a city bench! The fresh chair offers a place for rest, shade in the sun, light in the dark and cooling mist in the midst of midday heat. The integrated plants trap energy for the LED lights. The lamp umbrella provides shade and the plants create a refreshing mist. One has to wonder whether we will see those amazing inventions on our streets any time soon!
The Fresh Chair
The Fresh Chiar
I do hope that the above list proves that street furniture does not have to be boring and trite. On the contrary, when designed with imagination and passion, it can be true street art!
However, the reality is never that simple. Some of the above designs, as wonderful and inventive as they truly are, are highly unlikely to be used on wider scale, if ever at all.
They are often too complicated, too costly to produce or not vandal-proof enough.
Some of them might even fail to fulfill they primary role, which is that of functionality! Fortunately, several manage to be beautiful while staying practical and those pieces might be already seen in our cities. Let us hope this number grows – they truly liven up the cityscape and make our everyday lives that little bit more interesting!
Top 10 Street Furniture – Part 2
Due to popular demand — and the popularity of the “Top 10 Street Furniture” article — we are back with 10 more examples of amazing street furniture. All 10 – benches, bike racks, lanterns, and even rubbish bins – are functional, practical, and works of art in their own right.
This is probably the most important quality of well-designed street furniture – it cannot be just pretty, inventive, or funny, it also has to serve its purpose and work in its environment. After all, who would like to sit on an uncomfortable bench or use a bicycle rack that is easy to steal from? The users are the best judges in this category.
I hope you enjoy these best examples of street furniture, chosen especially for the readers of Landscape Architects Network.
10. Squiggle Rack
This bike rack design by Francis Anthony Bitonti is based on a modular system of several three-dimensional structures that can be connected in a variety of different ways. This makes it possible — and economically feasible — to build hundreds of unique bike racks. Just eight parts can be assembled into 800 different racks. The prototype was made of ABS plastic using FDM 3D printing technology. However, the racks can also be fabricated out of metal, such as cast iron.
Squiggle Rack
9. “Urban Adapter”
The Urban Adapter project in Hong Kong features a variety of street furniture, including a computer-generated bench. The designers, from Rocker-Lange Architects, wanted to create endlessly variable street furniture that can be changed and adjusted according to its surroundings. The real thing has been built out of wooden profiles. It has a modern, organic shape and is meant to give a unique identity to the streets of Hong Kong.
Urban Adapter
8. The IT Pit Stop
This is a Japanese solution for Internet-dependent cyclists. STORE MUU design studio took care of those busy people by producing a table where they can drink their coffee and use their computers comfortably, without getting off their bikes. Incredibly practical and ingenious.
IT Pit-Stop
7. “Strip Ease”
Colorful, ingenious, modular, and multifunctional, this piece of street furniture, designed by Lana + Savettiere, can act as a bench, a bike rack, a rubbish bin, or a planter. Its modularity allows for building a bench of an indefinite length. The simple, long stripe of recycled metal wound into the shape of a spiral is also environmentally friendly.
Strip Ease
6. Pop-Up Furniture
These tables and benches, designed by Carmela Bogman and Rogier Martens, pop up from the pavement when needed and sink back down again while not in use. The first such furniture was placed in the Lombok district of Utrecht, The Netherlands. The keys to the devices have been given to the people from the neighborhood to use at their will. A hydraulic cylinder allows for the adjustment of the height of the seat and table.
Pop Up Bench
5. Slug Seat
The team of San Francisco based designers Rael San Fratello Architects derived their idea of a biomorphic bench from a newly discovered species of a sea slug — Flabellina goddardi. The structure was also inspired by the infinite pattern of the Japanese karakusa. The bench was modeled using special 3D software, produced by way of 3D printing, and constructed from 230 unique components.
Slug Bench
4. The Boom Bench
The Boom Bench, by the German designer Michael Schoner, features eight 60-watt co-axial speakers and two subwoofers accessible via Bluetooth. It allows users to play music from their mobile phones with 95db high-quality sound. The bench was placed in the heart of Amsterdam North, where it proved to be a success, mostly among the local youth, but also other passersby.
Boombench
3. Braun Envi Rubbish Bin
This is a stylish stainless steel rubbish bin designed by Julien Bergignat, Cecilia Jia, and Johnny Chen, which collects biodegradable waste and turns it into compost. Paper, food, or plants placed in such a container quickly become compost through photo catalysis. The bin also gets rid of unpleasant smells. With the plants growing within, it is truly a “green” dust bin!
Braun Envi Rubbish Bin
2. Benchophone
This bench, designed by Roberto Putzu for the Epidemic Happiness contest, is composed of seven elements. Each produces a short, melodic ring, representing a different note on a musical scale, according to where you sit. A bit of practice might result in some amazing effects. The Benchophone can easily become a “proper” musical instrument, spreading music like happiness.
Benchophone
1. Lampbrella
This is an incredibly practical solution for those of us who tend to forget our umbrellas. It was proposed by Mikhail Belyaev, a Russian designer. The Lampbrella looks like a standard lamppost. However, it is fitted with a huge umbrella that opens automatically when it rains. Motion detectors close it down after two minutes if there is no sign of movement. The umbrella is safe for pedestrians, as it is installed at the height of 3m. With a diameter of 2.2m, it can easily host up to 10 people. I sincerely hope that this excellent example of street furniture becomes popular in our cities!
Lampbrella
Although each of the above examples is different, some common tendencies can be found. Several of them are modular, which means that versatility is of great importance to modern users. 3D printing technology is also becoming more and more available and popular. Many of the designs embrace modern technology. Several try to engage their users into some sort of interaction.
A few of the presented pieces are only prototypes. Others may already be found on the streets. Which one would you like to see on the streets of your city?
Article written by Marta Ratajszczak
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