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Street Furniture Australia invited nine women who work in landscape, each at different stages of life and career, to an International Women’s Day round table and lunch to discuss the 2020 theme, #EachForEqual. Special guest Linda Corkery, Professor of Landscape Architecture at UNSW, co-director of Corkery Consulting and former AILA National President, led the discussion supported by June Lee Boxsell, Head of Marketing and Innovation at Street Furniture Australia. We were joined by Esther Dickins (Scott Carver), Miriam Enoch (DesignInc), Ranine Hamed (City of Parramatta), Elisabeth Lester (Context), Faid Mazin (AILA Fresh NSW) and Isabel Sanders (Aspect Studios), Emma Washington (City of Sydney) and Tanya Wood (TWLA). The 2020 theme is drawn from a notion of ‘Collective Individualism,’ that we are all parts of a whole and our individual actions, …

Outdoor spaces support many important aspects of school life – providing places to play, learn, meet, make friends, socialise over lunch, share stories or sit quietly. Bringing the classroom outdoors is a growing trend in Australian education, with an increasing body of evidence to support its benefits for learning, social skills and health. Sir Ken Robinson, author of the most-watched TED Talk of all time, says, “We learn much more from the world around us and each other than we do from necessarily sitting indoors at desks. “What really drives education is curiosity, trying to fill gaps in our understanding. And the world around us is a tremendous resource to stimulate that curiosity.” He gives five reasons to teach outside, namely: Nature is a powerful resource. Children can learn through …

Oi Choong, winner of the 2018 Marion Mahony Griffin Prize for a distinctive body of work by a female architect, looks back on a career that spans the rise of landscape architecture as a profession, and women in the workplace.

Street Furniture Australia recently received a 2018 Australian Smart Cities Award for white paper #BackyardExperiment. The project was a collaboration between Street Furniture Australia and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, with support from the ACT Government. The park was designed by Context. The judges describe the project as a “partnership driven and replicable approach to smart cities,” that quantifies the impact of street activation. Below is a project summary: The Numbers … Garema Place is a grey and underused area surrounded by cafe and shops in the heart of Canberra CBD. #BackyardExperiment brought colour, movable furniture, lighting and lawn to the plaza for eight days. Park designed by Context Landscape Architects. Street Furniture Australia set up three time-lapse cameras to capture data before and during activation. Weekdays and weekend days were compared. Data …

ABC Radio Canberra’s Adam Shirley chats with Street Furniture Australia’s June Boxsell about the #WodenExperiment Discovery Report release, and ideas for the project, on Mornings. The following is a transcript of the program, which aired on Thursday August 30, 2018. AS Town squares used to be the place where everything happened. The good, the bad, from markets to public punishment even. Whatever the drawcard, people would come. Can you picture a town square in Canberra, perhaps Civic or Woden. Does it have a good feel? Or is the vibe a little dodgy, deserted, even run down? Do let me know if your town square is alive and thriving. A six month experiment in Woden Town Square has begun. June Lee Boxsell is from Street Furniture Australia and is involved in …

Get full access to the Discovery Report. #WodenExperiment is a six-month furniture installation to activate Woden Town Square in Canberra. The aim is to bring more life and joy to this public space for its community. The project is lead by Street Furniture Australia in partnership with the ACT Government. It began in early 2018 with a 6-week long Discovery phase, to dive deep into the Woden community’s thoughts, feelings and needs. Following the Discovery phase, which sets up the project brief, Context Landscape Design is working on the design concept for the activation. Research partners will help quantify the effect of the transformation. The Discovery journey was essential for establishing a user-centred design for this project. The Woden community generously engaged with our surveys in the square and online via …