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We count down your most-read articles from StreetChat for the year: featuring great case studies, profiles, street furniture tips and award-winning products. Every month we bring our readers new projects, products and trends from the public domain; subscribe here to receive the monthly update in your inbox. 10. Linea on show in San Diego with Spruce & Gander Our US partner Spruce & Gander, Inc treated San Diego customers to an afternoon of great food and wine at a Pop Up Picnic with Linea Cubes, Platform, Sun Lounge, Seats, Curved Bench and Picnic Settings on show. 9. Case study: Mission Australia DAYS Centre Vulnerable young people can sit together and relax in this courtyard space designed by Emerge Associates for outdoor healing and respite, at the Youth Withdrawal and Respite Centre in Perth, Western Australia. …

ChillOUT Tree, our first modular shade system, has won a prestigious Good Design Award – at Gold level – for outstanding innovation in the Product Design, Commercial and Industrial category. The award is shared by Street Furniture Australia with ChillOUT Hub collaborators – Georges River Council, UNSW and the University of Sydney – partners in prototyping, installing, testing and researching these smart outdoor community spaces as part of a pilot project for the federal Smart Social Spaces program. The Good Design Awards are the highest honour for design and innovation in the country. Entries are evaluated by Australian and international Jurors – including designers, engineers, architects and thought leaders – according to a strict set of criteria including Good Design, Design Innovation and Design Impact. Recognition at the Gold level …

With the ongoing uncertainty and upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 was another tough year for us all. Outdoor public spaces continue to be vitally important, offering communities a reprieve from living and working indoors. Street Furniture Australia is proud to have contributed to many inspiring and caring places in 2021. Here are 10 of our subscribers’ most-read StreetChat e-newsletter stories for the year. 10. 1.5 million battens: Ari’s 25-year anniversary Street Furniture Australia employee Ari Zaharopoulos celebrated 25 years working with the company. Throughout his career, he has processed an impressive estimated 1.5 million battens. Read more 9. Kirribilli Pop-Up NSW A pop-up project by North Sydney Council, designed by Turf Design Studio and Studio Garbett, has transformed newly pedestrianised Kirribilli streets. Part of the ‘Streets as Shared Spaces’ …

Design For Forest: by Zaš Brezar In Europe, landscape architects are using simple interventions to manipulate the use of forests while prioritising their essential environmental function, writes Zaš Brezar for Landezine. Landscape architects, Zaš writes, can “bring forests closer to people in a meaningful and careful way. Empowering bonds between landscapes and people is one of the most important tasks of our profession. We maintain what we appreciate.” Strengthening the existing, and designing by maintenance rather than from scratch, is central to designing forests with conservation and care in mind, they say. In Strandskogen Arninge Ullna, a park in Sweden, landscape architects maintained “existing ambiences” by choreographing visitors’ movement through the dense riparian forest on elevated walkways. “This way, they have minimised the impact of people staying in the woods …

The Smart Places Customer Charter, launched by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in November, invites place designers and custodians to commit to six principles guiding the creation and upkeep of smart city projects. Organisations involved with designing, creating or managing public spaces can sign up to the Charter to demonstrate a commitment to prioritising people, country, sustainability and resilience when creating and maintaining smart places. The six principles have been shaped by direct community input and suggest that “smart places should be built for people and designed with people,” and aim “to harness the potential of new technologies to meet the needs of citizens.” The Charter’s principles are: Co-creating smart places: giving custodians and customers a genuine voice throughout the smart places’ life cycle. Respecting local character: …

UNSW, the University of Sydney, Georges River Council and Street Furniture Australia together have won a 2020 PIA NSW Award of Excellence for the ChillOUT Hubs – Smart Social Spaces Creating Connected Green Places project. CM+ developed site plans and furniture arrangements for the construction phase. The PIA – Planning Institute of Australia – is the national body representing planning and the planning profession. State finalists from this year’s awards are eligible for the National PIA awards to be held in 2021. ChillOUT received an Award of Excellence in the Best Planning Ideas (Small Project) category, which recognises a project that benefits a site or a local place. It is awarded for planning documents, programs, policies or projects that advance current planning practice within a localised setting. The judges said: …