Submission: December 14, 2021
Registration: December 13, 2021
Language: English
Location: Australia
Prizes: $2400
Type: Open Competition

Parks may be popular public spots but their spatial design may remain unexplored in following regular and conventional design norms. The challenge of the competition is to redesign park furniture to create a new identity for the public place. The design aims to improve the park infrastructure through smart interventions. It attracts huge populations and services must accommodate all types of users.

Privacy and interaction spots can be spread over the layout to suit needs. The careful articulation of space through the customized design of the furniture can be refreshing and intriguing. The park must remain animated (active) during day and night time too.

Safety, security, and comfort must be achieved in all elements and forms. Park furniture can be inspired by its contextual history and represent the city culture and its people through meaningful design inputs. The existing infrastructure and natural setting are to be taken into consideration while proposing the new elements/additions.

Design Objectives

The objective is to create a tangible link between urban and elemental. The furniture pieces created, can be chosen from a broad category of street furniture categories described in the following sections. These can be chosen by the preferences of the designer or its affinity/use/compatibility to the park and the city.

Participants have to design any 4 different furniture pieces in the following typology. They can be combinable, but they should be useful/meaningful in isolation as well. The size of any furniture piece must not exceed 20 sq.m (in area).

One working piece of furniture that fits more than a single typology will be placed in the H. Hybrid category.

Typology A is mandatory, and the other 3 can be chosen separately.

A. Life: Table, Benches, Seating, etc.

B. Lights: Park lights, etc

C. Utility: Water supply and treatment systems, Solar power, etc.

D. Waste Management: Dustbins, Litter bins, Trash cans, etc.

E. Landscape: Fountain, Planters, Flower beds, etc.

F. Transportation: Pedestrian path, Cycle tracks, Bicycle sheds, etc.

G. Play: Slides, Playing setups, Swings, Fitness, etc.

H. Others/ Hybrid/ Park specific: A combination of the above furniture specific to the park.

You can pick any one or multiple of these furniture typologies and develop a design based on the brief. The key qualities expected in the furniture pieces are Innovation, accessibility, robustness, fun, durability, and efficiency.

There is no additional merit associated with the kind of choice of the categories. You can use hybrid categories that may solve crucial spots of the park and at the same time define its image at large.