Australia’s first locally designed and made smart bench, with outdoor device charging and provision for WiFi and sensors, has received a prestigious Good Design Award Winner Accolade for outstanding design and innovation.
The Aria Smart Bench is Street Furniture Australia’s first foray into the smart cities movement, says Head of Innovation June Lee Boxsell.
“For us, smart cities has two aspects. First, human-centred: we aim to bring enjoyment to public spaces and create meaningful experiences for the community. One way Aria Smart Bench answers this need is through modularity,” says Boxsell.
“Site specific solutions are important for activating public spaces. Each place has its own identity, community, history. Just as at Nike you can design your own shoe, with Aria you can design your own bench without having to build from scratch. Aria lets you mix and match different components, materials and colours to provide a unique result that is durable, tried and tested.
“Second is technology. Internationally, we are on the verge of exponential technological growth – AI, sensors, networks, autonomous vehicles and big data are all set to change our public space experience forever, so technology is now a vital part of Street Furniture Australia’s design process.
“The smart bench integrates with a table to provide outdoor device charging, with optional public WiFi and space for sensors.
“The phone is no longer just a phone: it’s how our loved ones contact us in cases of emergency, we manage our calendars, store our plane tickets – so to be out of battery can be a big problem. Some even see it as a safety issue. We thought a public space bench that enables charging at any time would be of great benefit to the community.”
The design of the Aria Smart Bench is underpinned with deep research into the needs of park users, architects and landscape architects and place custodians, says Design Advisor Mark Armstrong.
“The Aria Smart Bench represents the next generation of products for Street Furniture Australia, as it’s the result of a deep design dive using Design Thinking methods. Architects, place owners and managers, and users in parks were interviewed to understand their needs and aspirations. These research findings were distilled into a series of attributes for the seating system,” says Armstrong.
Principal Industrial Designer Danny Cheung says the design form for the Aria is contemporary yet timeless, to fit with diverse urban environments.
“Aria features a form language that we can take into the future. I wanted to achieve a distinctive aesthetic, that will not age over decades, with the flexibility of a modular system. The angular geometry allows light to create shadows and highlights for visual effect,” says Cheung.
“It is a joy and a great honour to receive recognition from your peers, particularly with such a strong field of quality designs. We thank the Good Design Awards jury and organisers for their humbling support.”
The Aria Smart Bench is described as “very well resolved” by the Good Design jury. “Aesthetically beautiful in appearance. The durability is apparent and the round edges soften the design appropriately,” they commented.
The winners of Australia’s peak industry design awards – the highest honour for design and innovation in the country – must demonstrate excellence in all areas and convince the jury they are worthy of recognition.
The panel spent several days evaluating entries according to a strict set of design criteria which covers good design, innovation and impact.
This year’s awards attracted a record number of submissions, with close to 700 design projects evaluated.
Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia, said: “Receiving a Good Design Award at this level is a significant achievement given the very high calibre of entries received this year.
“Australia’s Good Design Award is more than a symbol of design excellence, it represents the hard work and dedication towards an innovative outcome that will ultimately improve our quality of life. These projects showcase the brilliance of design and the potential it has to improve our world.”
The Street Furniture Australia factory, in Regents Park, Western Sydney, is both a manufacturing hub and R&D studio for our Australian-designed and made street furniture products. We run fun and informative group events for customers throughout the year, to share how products are designed, tested and built, and the latest products and projects. This tour is open to design specifiers such as landscape architects and architects, and place custodians including Councils, government agencies, developers and other place managers. Director of Tract Julie Lee said: “It was a great opportunity for our team to look behind the scenes and understand the innovation, research and climate positive outcomes Street Furniture Australia is focusing on. Thank you for having us!” Place Design Group Associate, Liam Isaksen, said: “The factory tour is a fun …
To celebrate the unveiling of the Piatto Chair at our annual product launch party with AILA NSW in Sydney, Jazz at The Mint, clients were invited to enter this quirky contest. The competition called for teams to incorporate Piatto Chairs into an ‘Awkward Family Photo’ portrait, for a chance to win Piatto Chairs of their very own. Congratulations to the creative crew from Yerrabingin, who delivered the strongest awkward family vibes on the night. Highly commended goes to the entrants below, and the full photo gallery from the event is available for viewing. Please contact marketing@streetfurniture.com if you would like to request a high res file to print and frame for your best room.
Clients from Sydney, Adelaide, California and Texas joined Street Furniture Australia and AILA NSW to celebrate the unveiling of new products on March 14, 2024, with margaritas and live music. Jazz at The Mint is an annual product launch held at The Mint, an iconic site in the heart of the Sydney CBD. It is an elegant affair and a unique opportunity to connect with landscape architects and built environment professionals at a global scale. This year’s party featured the new Linea Planter System and upcoming Piatto Chair, a single-seater hybrid between cafe and robust public space furniture – available now for specifications. The gathering was opened by Uncle Allan Murray, representing the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council, with speeches from: Ben Stockwin, AILA CEO, acknowledged the 10 year relationship with …
Street Furniture Australia has confirmed its ongoing six year partnership with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA), signing on for a further two years. The company has been a national sponsor and supporting corporate partner since 2014. “AILA is proud to continue this relationship with our longer-term partner, Street Furniture Australia,” says Tim Arnold, AILA CEO. “Street Furniture Australia has been committed to research, innovation and supporting the landscape architecture profession. “We’ve previously joined forces on things like #BackyardExperiment and Future Street; more recently they lead a research project, Woden Experiment at the Woden Town Square in Canberra. I’m excited to see what the partnership will bring into the future.” Street Furniture Australia will be a sponsor of the 2019 International Festival of Landscape Architecture: The Square and the …
Street Furniture Australia is honoured to be named winner of the Built Environment category at the inaugural Australian Smart Cities Awards in October 2018. These are the country’s first awards recognising leadership, best practice and action to advance the smart cities movement, evaluated by a seven-person jury chaired by David Singleton AM. The winners were announced at Smart Cities Week in Sydney, organised by the Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand. Street Furniture Australia received the Built Environment award for #BackyardExperiment, an eight-day activation of Garema Place, Canberra, which took place in October 2016. It was a small project that made a big impact. By adopting a people-first approach and quantifying the impact of design, the method of activation became an international case study. #BackyardExperiment was one of Australia’s first …
Street Furniture Australia has won the Research Project Award for #BackyardExperiment at Parks and Leisure Australia’s 2017 NSW and ACT Regional Awards of Excellence. NSW Business Development Manager Josine Denning was at the ceremony in Kiama to celebrate the fantastic work of local placemakers with awards for planning, events, parks, play and recreation spaces, technology, leadership and community programs. “This is my first time attending the Parks and Leisure Regional Awards. We received a wonderful warm welcome from Councils, who said they were pleased to see the wider industry participating. I found it so inspiring to see the passion and the energy in the room on this big night,” she tells StreetChat. “Our project received a lively and enthusiastic reception. It was moving to realise most present must have seen the …
