Gardens and public spaces can be funny as well as beautiful:
Patch Adams said, “Humor is the best antidote to all ills.” And I strongly agree. Life’s lighter with more laughs. Sydney Morning Herald’s Robin Powell writes about Canadian architect Claude Cormier’s exploration with humour in Toronto’s gardens and public spaces.
Claude Cormier et Associes launched in Montreal in 1994, and now has international recognition for his exclusive works in public spaces. Cormier’s projects explore the history and ecology of a place, its contemporary context and sometimes add in a little funny element too.
Powell writes, “Cormier believes that not just our parks but our streetscapes can do a better job of telling stories and bringing human relationships into public space, using colour, light and a sense of humour.”
Powell describes the Berczy Park fountain in Toronto, which celebrates locals and their ‘love affair with their dogs’. He writes, “You can’t see it and not smile.”
Read on for an antidote of laughs with the full article here.
Philadelphia is taking the city back to the past by reinstalling free ‘pay phones’:
We live in a world saturated with new forms of communication. And a phone is no longer just a phone. It’s a mini computer that lives by your side, morning and night. What if you want to ‘unplug’ and not be contactable 24/7? Jacalyn Wetzel of Up Worthy introduces us to PhilTel, a Philadelphian telephone collective reinstalling payphones. It’s a flash back to the past, a “pay phone” with a twist, no quarters needed, and free-to-use.
Mike Dank, co-founder of PhilTel, felt inspired to create communication accessible to everyone. According to opensource.com, Wetzel writes Dank as saying that PhilTel provides residents who are either choosing not to be ‘plugged in,’ or who are unable to afford phones, with a communication platform to navigate their lives.
Wetzel writes, “…the phones will be free to use and that includes making nationwide calls.” Wetzel writes that this is a great solution for allowing access to a phone for everyone, though “one has to wonder if the name will get updated. I mean, they’re not really pay phones anymore.”
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 …
In rapidly urbanising Seoul, the next battle is saving green spaces: “Korea is a country that does not value greenery,” professor of landscape architecture at Pusan National University, Hong Suk Hwan, told Bloomberg CityLab. It “only acknowledges the value of property.” Samgmi Cha writes about South Korean local, 34-year-old Baik SooHye inspiring the shift of devaluing green spaces in South Korea to saving these spaces. SooHye’s ‘Plant Kindergarten’ project encourages the protection of hundreds of plants that are often destroyed at construction sites across Seoul. Cha meets SooHye in her outdoor garden in western Seoul with the many plant species that she’s saved from these sites. The rescued plants are ‘adopted’ out to others who are also passionate about green spaces in Korea. SooHye says, “I see ‘Plant Kindergarten’ as my …
What a ‘sponge city’ designed to withstand extreme flooding looks like: After extreme flooding in cities of China in 2012, urban designer Yu Konjian coined the term ‘sponge city’ as one solution to climate change. Lisa Abend writes for Time: “Instead of paving over the land with impermeable concrete and asphalt, he proposed adding green spaces that could act like sponges and absorb excess rain water.” Abend writes that cities aren’t built for extreme weather conditions; that building with asphalt and concrete increases heat and gives water nowhere to go. Konjian’s alternative would allow the natural flow of water in green spaces. In Australia the term ‘water sensitive urban design’ is more commonly seen than ‘sponge city’, associated with techniques to ease flooding or “filtering and storing rainwater so that …
Strategic green spaces: How to make the most of their cooling effects We’re all aware of the cooling effects of green spaces for mitigating the climate crisis in cities. However ArchDaily’s writer Maria-Cristina Florian writes that greening and cooling strategies should consider how to improve climate outcomes beyond simply achieving ‘green coverage’. Strategic planning is a prerequisite in ensuring green spaces create the most impact for urban environments. Florian explores three strategies to optimise cooling effects: Green corridors and climatological planning Florian emphasises the importance of understanding, protecting and harmonising with the natural world surrounding a city. She references a meteorological study from 1939 in Stuttgard, Germany, which found that the city’s position in a valley basin with low wind speeds, combined with heavy industrialisation, were causing poor air quality. …
