Melbourne design agency Büro North is proposing in-ground traffic lights to safeguard pedestrians glued to their smartphones.
Architecture & Design reports that the firm developed the idea following reports of accidents involving players of the augmented reality game Pokémon Go (see our White Paper on Pokémon, augmented reality and cities).
David Bullpitt documents beautiful urban interventions with the planting of sunflower fields in prime renewal areas in the La Trobe Valley, Victoria.
In Architecture AU he writes, “the Get Sunflowered project by RMIT University’s Office of Urban Transformations Research (OUTR) offers an un-ashamedly happy intervention.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign has filmed an interview with an architect who was allegedly short-changed by rival Donald Trump. Architizer reports.
Andrew Tesoro was approached by Trump’s organisation back in 2002 to design a new clubhouse at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, New York.
The architect accepted the commission with enthusiasm: it was a prestigious project that could transform his small business.
Four years later, after his invoice had been sent and ignored, Tesoro was summoned to a meeting at the clubhouse. In the ballroom he designed, the architect was offered one-third of his bill.
However, this invoice too, was unpaid.
Tesoro says he met with Trump himself, who told him, “I really don’t think I should pay any more, because I spent too much on this building,” and proposed to pay less than 20 per cent of the original sum.
Read the full story, and watch the interview, here.
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. 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 experience to learn about the design and manufacturing process of public furniture we use in landscape architecture design. Seeing the work behind the scenes and …
Did you catch these most-read case studies, furnishing tips, new product announcements and special industry events in your StreetChat updates in 2023? Each month our StreetChat enewsletter publishes new projects, products and trends from the public domain; subscribe to receive it in your inbox. 10. Which design firm can see Longhorn Cattle from their office window? 2 countries. 9 cities. 300 landscape architects. Street Furniture Australia and USA partner Spruce & Gander visited offices in Australia and Texas. There were key similarities and some notable standouts. 9. Jazz at The Mint: Product and Book Launch Sydney landscape architects gathered at the iconic Mint Courtyard to launch a design book by our founding directors Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison, and expansions to the Linea collection. 8. 2023 Good Cause Giveaway goes to …
Street Furniture Australia has designed and built prototype charging stands as part of a Transport for NSW program to deliver free phone chargers at 15 Sydney train stations. Developed by Street Furniture Australia’s inhouse industrial designers in collaboration with Transport for NSW, the prototypes offer wireless, USB-A and USB-C charging, and can power 7 devices at once. They were built at the Street Furniture Australia factory in Western Sydney. Two Power Spots are now installed at Liverpool and Campbelltown stations. The $1 million Power Spots Project rollout to 15 transport hubs including Bankstown, Hurstville, Lidcombe, Penrith, Wynyard, Central, Town Hall and Bondi Junction will be completed by late 2024. NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Power Spots provide peace of mind: “In the modern world, our phones are our …
Floating Piers: More than one million people are reported to have walked on water at Lake Iseo in northern Italy, courtesy of two miles of fabric walkways called the Floating Piers. The project was conceived by Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude in 1970. Realised almost 50 years later, it cost around $22 million, funded by Christo himself. From June 18 to July 3 in 2016, the lake was reimagined with 100,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric, carried by a modular dock system of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes floating on the water. Wired describes its construction here, and Christo’s story, notes and drawings here. Photo: The Floating Piers at the island of San Paolo, Italy by NewtonCourt, Wikimedia Commons. Secrets of bent trees: The Daily Mail reports that bent trees all over the United States have baffled …
Superblocks to the rescue: Barcelona’s radical new strategy will restrict traffic to a number of big roads, drastically reducing pollution and turning secondary streets into citizen spaces for culture, leisure and the community. “In a city as dense as ours, it’s all the more necessary to re-conquer spaces.” Visit the Guardian article. Photo by Kaspars Upmanis on Unsplash. 7 placemaking tips: The Project for Public Spaces is a wealth of knowledge and research on how to create vibrant places rather than just useable spaces. Vox Urban highlights seven pearls of wisdom. In three words, these are: Engage with community Place, not space Collaborate with partners Prepare to push Observe local users Triangulate related elements Value, not cost. Read the full story. Photo: Sydney Living Museums. 104 year old street artist yarn bombs town Grace Brett might be …
The next Highline: underground? Smart optics bring natural light and flourishing plants to the Lowline experiment, a foray into subterranean parks. “It is lit by soft, bright rays that bounce off an aluminium canopy. When a cloud passes by, it gets dimmer; you look up almost expecting to see a skylight. Ferns, palms and Spanish moss hang from the ceiling. Funnelled from three solar panels on the roof, the light is refracted but still natural, so it contains the full spectrum of colours that plants need to flourish …” Visit the Economist 1843 article, or go to the Lowline website. Photo: Lowline. Why do we work so hard? The problem is not that overworked professionals are all miserable. The problem is that they are not, writes Ryan Avent. “I could anticipate with …
