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Bill Morrison and Darrel Conybeare, co-founders and directors of Street Furniture Australia, are celebrating 40 years of design practice with their architecture and urban design studio, CM+. The two young architects, shaped by formative experiences in the US and UK working with major players such as Eames, William Holford & Partners and the Farrell/Grimshaw Partnership – started their own venture in 1980 to shape cities through the still-fledgling practice of urban design. Their work includes the redesign of Macquarie Street and Circular Quay in Sydney for the 1988 Bicentennial, designing prominent Canberra spaces such as City Walk, universities in China and Kuching Waterfront in Malaysia. Bill and Darrel’s philosophy considers how a design might discover a the urban pulse and heritage of a city, reveal its urban character, and recognise …

ASLA San Diego, AILA NSW and Street Furniture Australia proudly present this online event connecting landscape architects from the US and Australia. US participants (Pacific Time): Thursday February 25th, 2021 at 5pm Australian participants (AEDT): Friday February 26th, 2021 at 12pm Registrations essential via Zoom. Topic: Homifying Sydney Olympic Park Public space owners, managers and designers in the US and Australia are dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. This webinar presents an Australian case study: Homifying Sydney Olympic Park, for discussion. This Olympic precinct turned business-and-events hub has pivoted towards its growing residential population during Covid. Human-centred design methodologies have been applied to understand how to ‘Homify’ the park’s everyday spaces. The aim is to recreate the comfortable ambience of home, to support the community and local businesses. The presentation …

To ‘homify’ is to create an ambience that is comfortable and immediately relaxing … a feeling that evokes, ‘I’m home’. Street Furniture Australia proudly presented ‘Homifying Sydney Olympic Park’ – a webinar accredited by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects for 1 Formal CPD point – as part of the Land-e-Scape online festival. The presentation streamed on the Land-e-Scape conference platform and for free on YouTube. It is currently available to watch on demand via YouTube. Viewing link: https://bit.ly/3iUEKbwRegistration (optional): Register your attendance for CPD certification. What is the webinar about? The session will explore how human-centred design was applied for community consultation at Sydney Olympic Park. Human-centred design is a process more typically seen in product or software development than in placemaking. Street Furniture Australia uses human-centred design to create …

Street Furniture Australia has helped two young architects from CM+ with the design and build of colourful, immersive artworks for Sydney’s annual festival of light, music and ideas. The 23-day festival attracted 2.25 million visitors in 2018, with similar numbers expected for 2019. Vivid Light, a series of sound and light installations, comes to life after dark throughout the city. An enveloping snowflake storm, Let It Snow by Jing Li, and an interactive musical tree, Harmony by Rod Tan, opened to acclaim on Friday May 24 and are set to delight audiences till June 15, 2019. Angus Easthope, industrial designer with Street Furniture Australia and project lead for the Vivid build, shares insights into the design and installation of more than 1.5 tonnes of aluminium and steel for the two …

Sydney’s Centennial Park hosted 8,335 runners from 341 companies for JP Morgan’s Corporate Challenge, a charity run to bring employees together and support the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. CM Group sent a team of 29 participants to take on the 5.6km race course, through the rain, with a record number of runners for the Sydney event despite the wet. Team captain Tomas van der Meer says the Challenge brings together staff across the group, from CM+, Context and Street Furniture Australia. He says, “At Centennial Park we went for the group photo, pinned our numbers and lined up for the start. Though it was raining we entertained ourselves with a breakdance and photographs. The sleeves were rolled up and at 6:40pm we were off. “Jason from Context flew over the course and all of the others followed soon after with …

A special interview with Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison about the beginnings of Street Furniture Australia. Image: Classic Plaza Seat, first designed in 1974. Darrel Conybeare – Founding Director Can you tell us a bit about your background? I graduated in architecture with first Class Honours and the University Medal at the University of Sydney in 1962. I then went on to gain Masters degrees in Architecture and City Planning in the Civic Design Program at the University of Pennsylvania. I’ve worked in American architectural practices Wallace McHarg, Roberts & Todd, a local government planning department as Marin County Urban Designer and in the office of Ray & Charles Eames as the Project Design Director of the National Fisheries Centre and in the Australian architectural practices McConnel Smith & Johnson, Collard …