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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 …

A new 400-page strategic handbook has been released by World Bank Group to help cities unlock ‘hidden value’ by working with public and private partners and communities to invest in the co-creation of human-centered, sustainable, economically vibrant and socially inclusive public spaces. Smart and sustainable strategies implemented across public-space asset life cycles yield returns on investment far exceeding monetary costs, the authors say, and enhance city livability, resilience, and competitiveness. According to the report, while globally about a third of a city’s land area is covered by public spaces, the potential of public-space assets to transform cities and improve urban life is often overlooked. “The resulting degradation of public spaces into congested, vehicle-dominated, and polluted places often becomes a liability, creating a downward spiral that drains public resources and exacerbates …

New experimental open-air smart hubs, created by Street Furniture Australia at our studio and factory in Western Sydney, have been officially launched by Georges River Council Mayor Kevin Greene on Thursday February 20, 2020. “ChillOUT Hubs aim to offer some relief in our densifying cities by providing opportunities to meet, work or rest, and spend more time outdoors,” says Street Furniture Australia Head of Innovation June Lee Boxsell. “Each hub packs a punch – integrating shade, seats and tables, charging stations, solar power, sensors, lighting, public WiFi, greenery, smart fountains and smart bins – a big feat combining tech, industrial design and placemaking,” she says. Three hubs are already installed in the Georges River Council region in south Sydney as part of a pilot study for the Australian Government’s Smart …

Georges River Council’s partnership with UNSW and Street Furniture Australia has received a Highly Commended Award for Cross Sectoral Collaboration at the 2019 Smart City Awards by the Committee for Sydney. The awards celebrate projects and partnerships that address the fundamental challenges faced by cities, governments, industry and communities in Greater Sydney. The three partners were recognised for their collaboration on creating smart social spaces that improve the amenity and user experience of public open spaces, as well as helping to mitigate urban heat island effects at the micro level. The trio is one of the few teams to win both Round 1 and Round 2 grants from the Australian Government’s $50m Smart Cities and Suburbs Program. The Round 1 project, Smart Social Spaces, investigated how smart furniture can be …

5 Inspiring Stories of Great Public Places: The Project for Public Spaces has added five more entries to its international Great Public Spaces database. In Moscow, 18 lanes of the capital’s ring road have been reduced to no more than 10 at any point to create the Garden Ring, with 13 new public spaces, 20 crosswalks, generous promenades and 2880 new trees. In Vancouver, Alley Oop (pictured above) transforms an underused laneway into a place for play, with areas marked for basketball and hopscotch, seating and tables for comfort and a dedicated clean team. Strangers are seen playing together. In Bristol, Electric Moon is an artwork and low-cost lighting installation designed to help pedestrians and cyclists see each other at a trouble spot on a dark shared path. Historic Burns Court welcomes visitors …

It was a year of collaborative projects, smart technology, smart furniture and smart cities – but first and foremost great public spaces that answered their community’s needs. Count down our top six StreetChat stories of 2018, that were most popular with subscribers. 6. Competitions: Win a Drone and Smart Watch StreetChat subscribers contributed some creative entries in both competitions, but there could only be one winner for each. Luke Cox from Phillips Smith Conwell Architects in Brisbane was named the winner of the android smart watch for his acrostic poem entry. Matthew Moore, also from Brisbane but with HASSELL, took home the DJI Spark Mini Drone for his beachside augmented reality Aria. See the gallery of entries. Matthew Moore’s augmented reality Aria, by the sea. 5. Smart Social Spaces Georges River Council and the …