StreetChat’s Top 10 Stories for 2025

2025 was another inspiring year for public space design, with a strong focus on urban density and recognising the value of outdoor space for health and wellbeing. Here’s a review of the 10 most popular StreetChat stories last year.

1. Meriton Centro

Architectus designed an intergenerational park and play space for the residents of Meriton’s Centro Pagewood development, a master-planned community in Sydney’s eastern suburbs featuring high density towers and retail.

2. Finally, A Good Looking Bin

In September, we launched the Linea Bin, adding to our minimalist Linea Range. Built from stainless steel for strength and durability with a refined aesthetic, it was designed with input from landscape architects and waste managers to deliver hygiene, accessibility and sustainability in the public realm.

3.  Woodcroft College Wellbeing Garden

Swanbury Penglase completed a secluded outdoor garden for Adelaide’s Woodcroft College. The vision was to create a calming space, with neutral tones of white and timber where students could unwind and connect with nature.

4. Immersive Gardens Redefine Healthcare

Adults were also benefitting from the healing properties of wellbeing gardens. For almost three decades the cancer support charity Maggie’s in the UK has provided patients an alternative to windowless, sterile oncology facilities, with gardens that reflect the changing seasons.

5.  Ngutungka Henley

Designed by JPE Design Studio for the City of Charles Sturt, Ngutungka Henley is an integrated library and community centre in Adelaide, South Australia. The surrounding gardens incorporate the colours and textures of the local environment while providing outdoor space to sit and enjoy a good book.

6. Officer District Park

Landscape architects Papworth Design created a vibrant community parkland for Cardinia Shire Council, which became an instant hit thanks to a social media post that went viral. The popular park includes an adventure playground, parkour zone, fitness equipment stations, a scenic lookout, an off-leash dog park, picnic areas, walking paths and a wetland.

7. West Fest 2025: Designing for Density

More than 200 built environment professionals from government, landscape architecture, planning and research gathered for West Fest 2025 in Parramatta NSW and online to discuss one of Western Sydney’s biggest challenges: how to design density in a way that enhances liveability.

8. First People’s Garden

Taylor Brammer and collaborators – including D’harawal Elders and Knowledge Holders – created a garden in tribute to the ancestral knowledge and cultural heritage of the D’harawal peoples for Western Sydney University’s Campbelltown campus in south-western Sydney.

9.  Engineered Wood: A New Timber Alternative

Engineered wood joined our selection of batten materials. Engineered wood has the look and feel of natural timber and is backed by 12 months of performance testing by Street Furniture Australia for use in the public realm.

10. Rosary School

Wax Design worked with Grieve Gillett Architects to transform the 117 year old Catholic School in inner suburban Adelaide from a hard-surfaced campus into a green, inviting landscape.

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