Street furniture - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed on streets and roads for various purposes, including traffic barrier

Traffic barrier

Traffic barriers keep vehicles within their roadway and prevent vehicles from colliding with dangerous obstacles. Traffic barriers installed at the road side also prevent errant vehicles from traversing steep slopes. Traffic barriers installed at the medians of divided highways are also referred...

s,
benches

Bench (furniture)

A bench is a piece of furniture, on which several people may sit at the same time. Benches are typically made of wood, but may also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials. Many benches have arm and back rests; some have no back rest and can be sat on from either side. In public areas,...

, bollard

Bollard

A bollard is a short vertical post. Originally it meant a post used on a ship or a quay, principally for mooring. The word now also describes a variety of structures to control or direct road traffic, such as posts arranged in a line to obstruct the passage of motor vehicles...

s, post box

Post box

A post box is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service...

es, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic light

Traffic light

Traffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...

s, traffic sign

Traffic sign

Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...

s, bus stop

Bus stop

A bus stop is a designated place where buses stop for passengers to board or leave a bus. These are normally positioned on the highway and are distinct from off-highway facilities such as bus stations. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage...

s, grit bin

Grit bin

A grit bin or salt bin is an item of street furniture, commonly found in countries where freezing temperatures and snowfall occur, which holds a mixture of salt and grit which is spread over roads if they have snow or ice on them...

s, tram stop

Tram stop

A tram stop is a place designated for a tram to stop so passengers can board or alight it. Tram stops share most characteristics of bus stops, but because trams operate on rails, they often include railway platforms, especially if stepless entries are provided for accessibility...

s, taxi stand

Taxi stand

A taxicab stand is a queue area on a street or on private property where taxicabs line up to wait for passengers.-How stands work:...

s, public lavatories, fountain

Fountain

A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....

s, watering trough

Watering trough

A watering trough is a receptacle for the storage of water so both domestic and non-domestic livestock can obtain drinking water....

s, memorial

Memorial

A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....

s, and waste receptacles. An important consideration in the design of street furniture is how it affects road safety.

General descriptions

Street name signs identify streets for the benefit of visitors, especially postal workers and the emergency services. They may also indicate the district in which the street lies.

A bench
Bench (furniture)
A bench is a piece of furniture, on which several people may sit at the same time. Benches are typically made of wood, but may also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials. Many benches have arm and back rests; some have no back rest and can be sat on from either side. In public areas,...

is essentially a chair made for more than one person, usually found in central parts of settlements (such as plaza

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

s and park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

s). They are often provided by the local councils or contributors to serve as a place to rest and admire the view. Armrests in between are sometimes provided to discourage lying down and/or unwanted closeness.

Bollard
Bollard
A bollard is a short vertical post. Originally it meant a post used on a ship or a quay, principally for mooring. The word now also describes a variety of structures to control or direct road traffic, such as posts arranged in a line to obstruct the passage of motor vehicles...

s are posts, short poles, or pillars with the purpose of preventing the movement of vehicles onto sidewalk

Sidewalk

A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, footway, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade and is normally separated from the vehicular section by a curb...

s or grass.

Post box
Post box
A post box is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service...

es, also known as mail boxes, are found throughout the world, and have a variety of forms: round pillar style found in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

and the U.K.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

(the two feature a difference in that the Japan

Japan

ese version has a round lid while the UK version is flat); rectangular blue boxes in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

; red and yellow boxes with curved tops in Australia, some on poles. The new Canadian version is a red box with a slanted back top (the old had a round top and were great for putting children into.)

Phone boxes or telephone booth
Telephone booth
A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box or telephone box is a small structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience. In the USA, Canada and Australia, "telephone booth" is used, while in the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth it is a "telephone...

s are prominent in most cities, and while ranging drastically in the amount of cover they offer users, e.g. many only cover the phone itself while others are full booths, are instantly recognisable. The widespread use of mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s has resulted in a decrease in their numbers.

Streetlamps are designed to illuminate the surrounding area at night, serving not only as a deterrent to criminals but more importantly to allow people to see where they're going. The colour of streetlamps' bulbs differ, but generally are white or yellow.

Traffic lights (or traffic signals) usually include three colours: green to represent "go", amber to inform drivers that the colour will alternate shortly, and red to tell drivers to stop. They are generally mounted on poles or gantries or hung from wires.

Traffic signs warn drivers of upcoming road conditions such as a "blind curve", speed limits, etc. Direction signs tell the reader the way to a location, although the sign's information can be represented in a variety of ways from that of a diagram to written instructions. Direction signs are usually mounted on poles. Recently, illumination has started to be added in order to aid nighttime users.

Public lavatories allow pedestrians the opportunity to use restroom facilities, either for free or for a fee.
Fire Hydrant

Fire hydrant

A fire hydrant , is an active fire protection measure, and a source of water provided in most urban, suburban and rural areas with municipal water service to enable firefighters to tap into the municipal water...

s--fire service hook ups have a regional flare, or in the UK, buried in the street.

Poster Pole--some cities like Berlin or Paris have dedicated poster towers.

Litter Bin--

Emergency telephone

Emergency telephone

An emergency telephone is a phone specifically provided for making calls to emergency services and is most often found in a place of special danger or where it is likely that there will only be a need to make emergency calls....

Box--

Street curbstones.

Paving stones--brick rosettes or granite cobbles, sometimes even wood.

Street furniture can be positioned to control overspill parking

Overspill parking

Overspill parking is the parking of vehicles beyond the main area provided for the purpose. It can occur because provided parking spaces are insufficient for demand or considered unsatisfactory for some reason...

in addition to its primary purpose; for example a bench and a number of bollards may be used to block access to a sidewalk or verges for vehicles.

Local significance

Street furniture itself has become as much a part of many nations' identities as dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

s and national events, so much so that one can usually recognise the location by their design; famous examples of this include:

The red telephone boxes of Britain
The residential mail boxes of the United States
The street light
Street light
A street light, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or walkway, which is turned on or lit at a certain time every night. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells to turn them on at dusk, off at dawn, or activate...

s and metro
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...

entrances of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Historical street furniture

The Tiergarten

Tiergarten

Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...

park in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

has a collection of antique streetlamps from around the world, both gas and electric.

Since most items of street furniture are of a utilitarian nature, authorities generally keep them up-to-date and replace them regularly (usually to conform to regulations, safety codes, etc.). Because of this, old, outdated, obsolete, or even non-functional street furniture can be rare sights and hold a special fascination and inspire nostalgia

Nostalgia

The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...

for many people.

Outdoor advertising and street furniture

Posters are a part of out-of-home media (also referred to as OOH). The presentation of backlit posters is done in display boxes or street furniture components like mega-displays or billboards. To install these street furniture components on public ground, city councils have to agree. To get these permissions (Europe, Asia and part of the US) services and fees are offered to the cities by the outdoor advertisers.
In Europe there is a heavy competition for public spots to do advertising in different poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...

formats since these spots generate high contact figures – means many people can possibly remember a presented advertising message on a major road or square.
The presentation of this advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

has to fit in the overall urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

rules of cities and their architecture. These requirements lead to interesting design approaches for poster presentation in different formats.
Street furniture families were designed to fit these needs. Over the years they were completed with additional components like restrooms and automatic toilet facilities and kiosks to name a few.
To finance this infrastructure long term contracts (10 to 15 years) are signed between cities and outdoor advertising companies.
Cities are often put in a situation to decide on new concepts when they are not familiar with the issues, since new contracts occur only very seldom. This knowledge gap is closed by a special advisor—the street furniture report.
This advisor gives cities some independent ideas on how to act in this surrounding (rather than reacting) since public grounds can not be enlarged.

Telecommunication

Some concealed cell sites disguise the tower with a structure that can fit into street furniture.

Communication tools include large displays placed in central streets to provide information, advertise events or products, or warn citizens about potential problems. Interactive displays can show information on key places and monuments and allow parking payments. They can serve as a cell site with low visual impact.

Some cell sites have a structure that make it look pleasant. In this case it is not concealed but highlightend, becoming a part of the street furniture that can be admired by citizens. Such a cell tower decorated with glass can be found in Treviso

Treviso

Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...

, Italy. It is the result of the cooperation between architects and desigers creating an architecturally blended cell site.

The use of power from renewable sources is possible and widespread also employing street furnitures for communication. In the design evolution, the use of renewable technologies allows to add new value to elements traditionally seen as sources of environmental pollution. In this case finding energy and space for energy accumulation, are key aspects in design criteria.

General descriptions

Local significance

Historical street furniture

Outdoor advertising and street furniture

Telecommunication

See also