Currently there are various types of street furniture, each designed to provide ergonomics and comfort to all people within a city or community. Next, we will present some examples according to their classification:
Street Furniture For Rest And Socialization
It provides rest to the general public that travels in the city or parks; it also represents a meeting place and enjoy free time. One of the best known types of Street furniture are urban benches for parks and picnic tables, generally protected by the shade of trees or by covers such as sails.
Urban Game Equipment
They provide fun and entertainment to the public, but especially to children. The most prominent are playground games, chess tables, table tennis, basketball boards or similar games.
The play areas favor the possibility for people to meet in fun, green and regularly maintained areas.
Equipment For Public Roads
These include traffic signs, warning cones, traffic lights, bus stops, bike racks, among others.
Street Furniture To Illuminate Urban Spaces
They provide light to designated spaces or areas to guarantee safety to users, as well as the usability of the spaces, whether on a public road traveled by cars, such as an avenue lit with bollards, or the use of lights for parks and other urban spaces.
Street Furniture For Waste Disposal
This type of street furniture serves to make it easier for public spaces to be kept clean at all times, the classic example is urban garbage cans for parks.
In fact, there are different types of garbage containers, made with specific materials and colors to classify waste, and most importantly, they are made with resistant and durable raw material.
Urban Protection Equipment
This classification materializes with equipment that protects citizens from rain or other climatic events. Covered bus shelters are the most common example of this category.
In another order of ideas, there is furniture that does not have a category, that meets the needs of citizens. Here are some of the most important:
- Drinking water fountains.
- The bike racks.
- Bollards, which prevent the passage of bicycles or vehicle parking.
- Posts and fences.
- Food sales kiosks.
- Telephone boxes.
- Public restrooms.
General CHARACTERISTICS OF STREET FURNITURE
As you already know, each type of Street furniture has different types of characteristics and peculiarities, below we will explain the three most important ones.
Keep The Streets Clean
Garbage bins installed in communities help encourage people and citizens to dispose of waste properly. Consequently, recycled street furniture reduces pollution.
Encourage Interaction
Among the characteristics of Street furniture is the promotion of social coexistence, since they promote the creation of community focal points where people can meet and socialize. Seating, planters, and interactive furniture are some good examples.
Support Lifestyles
Street furniture should help promote healthy lifestyles, an element that cannot be missing in these spaces are bicycle racks, as they provide great benefits to cycling and recreation fans. In this sense, they reduce CO2 emissions, vehicular congestion and favor personal health benefits.
In addition, today there are many types of Street furniture for physical activity, the classic example being outdoor exercisers.
How Important Is Street Furniture?
Harmonious habitability within a city is also measured by the amenities and services available to the people who live in that city.
In this sense, Street furniture is of fundamental importance when offering citizens solutions that make the daily routine more pleasant and functional. Between other reasons:
- Contributes to the formation of pleasant landscapes.
- These facilities make it easy for people to take a break or just socialize.
- It facilitates the mobility of pedestrians.
The designs of these urban facilities are inclusive, that is, they can be used by children and older adults, mothers who carry their children and even people with different types of disabilities.
- It is functional: how could we move around safely without signage, road signs or traffic signals?
- Provides fun: where would your children play if there wasn’t that playground in front of your house?
- Makes it easy to be safe: how would you cycle home at night without street lighting?
It depends on the conscience of the citizens to preserve the conditions of each piece of furniture installed in public places. According to this premise, at procity we seek to distribute products of the highest quality, in terms of materials, design, price and comfort.
What Do We Call Street Furniture Within The World Of Architecture?
Street furniture in architecture includes the design and installation of its elements in a public space. Often, it is an activity entrusted to specialized architects, part of an in-depth investigation of the historical evolution of the community in question.
For this reason, the furniture intended for outdoor cities must be designed considering the needs of the group, especially children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Likewise, they must stimulate social gatherings and encourage citizens to socialize.
The value of a street furniture project lies in the ability to integrate the past with new design elements that respond to the needs of contemporary citizens.
Finally, public spaces constantly adapt to the needs of the inhabitants, without betraying the identity of those places. This is the great challenge for designers.
