Street furniture
The term street furniture (also street furniture ) is the generic term for those objects in the outdoor area, in public and private urban space, on squares or in parks, which, comparable to classic furniture, furnish the urban space and are earmarked.
A piece of street furniture offers functions that are required in public space (for example partitions), or it is an object that is used for information or advertising, for lingering, relaxing or playing. Excessive street furniture is also viewed critically by planners and architects for design reasons.
Definitions
The term street furniture is used to describe objects and facilities in public spaces that, in contrast to buildings and other structures, have a dimension that is closer to the size of furniture than that of architecture , and some of which have similar functions to classic furniture . Compared to furniture in the interior, however, its dimensions are sometimes significantly larger.
" Well , lanterns , selling houses, advertising columns, public conveniences , fire detectors , call points, normal watches , telephone booths, bus stops columns, street name signs , manure and sand pits, Oberleitungsmasten tram, switch boxes, bus shelters, billboards, boxes , bins, flower pots, ventilation shafts, pavement borders and benches - all of this fell or falls under the term "street furniture", which, by the way, according to tradition, was coined by the former city planning director Werner Düttmann . "
Often it is purely functional furniture, on the other hand it is often the result of a conscious design requirement of the respective municipality. In larger cities they are sometimes subject to an image canon of forms, the development of which architects and designers are commissioned with the purpose of a corporate identity and for cultural representation .
The division into certain street furniture groups is not clear and can be done according to different criteria. Differentiation from real estate is difficult for a number of street furniture, since most street furniture is permanently installed for functional reasons, so that it also remains immobile and is not a piece of furniture in the classic sense. Two typically German systems in the street space, which are often cited as examples of street furniture, are the advertising pillar and the urinal , also in the form of the Berlin “ Café Achteck ”. With these properties the problem of demarcation becomes obvious. A common toilet facility or a kiosk cannot be seen as street furniture, and a gargoyle can only be fixed (immobile) because it needs a fixed connection to the water supply system.
Exclusion definition
Not part of the street furniture
- Fixed components of the road system, such as curb stones, pavement slabs, asphalt pavements , manhole covers or noise barriers,
- technical facilities that serve the operation and security of a city,
- Hydrants operated on the water network and the transformers belonging to the electricity network, power outlets, and telephone distribution boxes,
- Surveillance cameras and sound systems as well as bulk goods boxes, glass and paper containers.
Buildings according to the definitions of the state building regulations that can be entered by people and are suitable or intended to serve the protection of people, animals or things, of some durability and are firmly connected to the ground are not part of street furniture. This applies to all above-ground, independently usable, roofed structures in public space . This refers to kiosks, waiting halls for public transport, toilets and toilets as well as urinals , canopies in a shopping area or a train station entrance, and covered bicycle parking facilities are not categorized as street furniture.
There are different views about the belonging to street furniture with lighting fixtures, traffic lights and traffic signs : although they serve the flow of traffic and are necessary equipment of the street system, they are often understood as street furniture. A differentiated view can be seen in the case of mailboxes or taxi pillars. Pure structures are often not meant as street furniture. "Infrastructure objects" through design and location-specific versions that blend harmoniously into the cityscape acquire the character of street furniture. Such equipment in the country can be created to generate advertising income. Bicycle racks and rubbish bins are characterized as "city furniture".
Use for advertising purposes
In recent years, this term has increasingly been used to refer to larger objects and buildings . Service functions of municipal institutions are often linked to the interests of private advertising agencies and investors in public-private partnerships . This applies, for example, to waiting halls, tram platform roofs, public telephones and toilets . Street furniture is also created solely for advertising purposes, such as the advertising column, mega-light boards and recycling bins with backlit posters - advertising .
The advertising industry is interested in street furniture that can also generate advertising revenue. A separate branch of industry has developed around the installation and rights of use for outdoor advertising of street furniture. Local advertising rights on public land are granted by the municipalities. You usually conclude long-term contracts with the outdoor advertisers. These typically envisage the obligation for street furniture makers to set up and maintain the corresponding facilities, such as public toilet facilities. In return, he may market the advertising space. Depending on the attractiveness and amount of advertising space, the municipality also receives money from street furniture suppliers or has to pay them for their services. These contracts run for 10 to 15 years, given the investments to be made. Such facilities in public space are the Wall kiosks , which are set up by Wall AG for free use and are financed for installation and maintenance from their advertising income.
Use of street furniture
Railings, posts, barrier chains, barriers or guide and protective fences are used to shape the flow of traffic, to separate areas or to protect citizens in general. Other street furniture for this purpose are bollards or more general barrier elements. Tree protection devices and bicycle racks or parking bars also belong to this group. Another function is the supply of generally accessible items of consumption such as vending machines , drinking fountains and water pumps, the latter also being used in particular for emergency water supply. Waste baskets are used to maintain general order . In order to structure the parking possibilities or to limit them in time, parking machines are set up.
Information boards and city maps, display and message boxes and the signs, which are preferably attached to pillars, serve to inform citizens. Other pieces of furniture used for information purposes are normal clocks , sundials and weather pillars . Often these elaborate facilities are associated with advertising . Billboards and advertising pillars as well as billboards are used separately and exclusively for advertising . Stand and wall cabinets have an intermediate position between general information and separate advertising. In addition to general information, there are emergency telephones and fire alarms and general telecommunication facilities or information pillars (info points) for communication with authorities or for emergencies in urban areas. Observation telescopes or large screens for public viewing or fine dust filters in the form of the City Tree provide more specific tasks .
Seating, plant boxes and pots and pergolas serve a general cultural function for lingering, relaxing or playing . Also fountain , play area, flagpoles or jump Islands are preferably suitable. Monuments and sculptures are more clearly assigned than culture in urban space . The installation of street furniture is part of the area of responsibility of the public sector , but if the location is not an urban area , there can be a dispute about street furniture.
The implementation of modern technologies does not have to do with street furniture, so benches can be equipped with a charging station and WiFi as a smartbench. Instead of massive concrete barriers, street furniture such as firmly anchored benches or retracted protective walls can also serve to increase safety in public spaces.
Street furniture has long been important for the design of public life in cities, even if not under this umbrella term. A list for April 1, 1911 for Berlin (at that time in the boundaries of the Mitte district) names: 27,678 light stands (masts, candelabra), 18,093 masts for the tramway overhead line, 1,532 fountains of all types and constructions, 1140 posts, 874 stop posts for trams and buses, 538 manure and sandboxes, 200 fire alarms, 46 switch boxes for the electric tram operation, 54 normal clocks, 39 fixed kiosks and 279 public facilities of all kinds. In addition, street furniture from the suburbs was added for the (from 1920) area of Greater Berlin .
Well-known architects and designers
The Austrian architect Luigi Blau designed street furniture in Vienna , including benches, flower pots and clothes containers. In the garden of the Museum Het Schip in Amsterdam , an exhibition shows various street furniture in the style of the Amsterdam School , among others by Pieter Lucas Marnette (1888–1948) and Anton Kurvers (1889–1940).
Norms
The German Institute for Standardization e. V. is the DIN (1998 as of July) "Precast concrete products - Street furniture and garden design elements" EN 13198 has been developed. The document specifies the performance requirements for prefabricated street furniture and garden design elements made of concrete. Definitions for street furniture are not given. Prefabricated non-structural products and accessories can be used in public and private areas. DIN EN 13198 also does not apply to paving stones, pavement slabs, kerbstones, fences, drainage channels, safety barriers or noise barriers, which are not street furniture .
Web links
literature
- Hans-Werner Klünner, Gerhard Ullmann: Street furniture in Berlin . Berlin 1983, catalog for the exhibition street furniture in Berlin , The Senator for Building and Housing.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Original text: The first new fire alarm that visibly adapts to Berlin street life has now been set up on a trial basis and the old fire alarms are to be replaced little by little. Current-Pictures-Centrale, Georg Pahl
- ↑ Street furniture, the : smaller structural element set up in the urban area that (corresponds to functionalist urban planning ideas and) is intended to give the cityscape a certain character.
- ↑ Temporary benches in Lichtenrader Bahnhofstrasse
- ↑ New street furniture : new benches, wheel stands and waste bins for Herzogenrath-Mitte. In: Aachener Zeitung , January 31, 2019
- ↑ In winter at the bus stop without a roof? The "street furniture" again in the Leipzig City Council . In: "Leipziger Internet-Zeitung", March 22, 2016
- ↑ "Tube Line": bench and bike stand at the same time . In: Oldenburger Online-Zeitung , December 3, 2019
- ^ Advertising pillars in Stahnsdorf, Teltow and Kleinmachnow
- ↑ City center gets bike racks and rubbish bins In: Ostsee-Zeitung [Bad Doberan], August 3, 2016: "45,000 euros are set in the double budget of the city of Bad Doberan for street furniture."
- ↑ Markus Hofmann: Truck rolls down street furniture and drives away . In: Badische Zeitung, April 5, 2006: "A truck driver knocked over a billboard yesterday in Tullastrasse."
- ↑ A break under the moss wall , Heidemarie A. Hechtel: A moss wall in the middle of the city . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , June 11, 2018.
- ↑ Street furniture: notification sent after LVZ contribution . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , August 5, 2019
- ↑ Markranstädt: The street furniture dispute goes into the next round . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , August 28, 2019
- ↑ Smart bench: seating with added value . In: Volksstimme , October 23, 2019.
- ↑ More security for Breitscheidplatz . In: Berliner Abendblatt , November 22, 2018.
- ^ Jörg Maibaum: Latent terror threat: Essen plans invisible security . In: NRZ February 1, 2018
- ↑ from: Hans-Werner Klünner, Gerhard Ullmann: Street furniture in Berlin . Berlin 1983.