Now here’s a neat little project…. Nestled in Melbournes eastern suburbs is Ashburton. This leafy suburb has a cozy little shopping centre found along Alamein street. As part of an upgrade project by the City of Boroondara, Draffin Street Furniture were selected to provide a number of standard and custom furniture elements.
The City of Boroondara have been carrying out improvement projects at many small and medium shopping strips across the municipality as part of their “Shopping Centre Improvement Plan”. The council aims to create a sense of enclosure to the sites with an urban character that encourages public gathering and dining. Council landscape architects developed a plan for the site which incorporated a number of custom seating elements to meet this challenge.
The Furniture
The brief included “various types of curved seating to suit everyone’s needs: bench seats with back and arms; timber-topped curved seating, a drinking fountain with dog bowl, colourful cubes and cafe tables & chairs and garden areas.”
Having being appointed to supply the furniture elements for this project, Draffin designers worked closely with council landscape architects to develop the concepts for the seating into fully detailed designs ready for production. By providing rendered 3D images of the design to council as it progressed, Draffin were able to ensure that the end result was exactly what the council envisioned.
Curved Seating
Draffin developed a bespoke frame solution for the curved seats ensured the seat tops and concrete blocks match perfectly. A clever new fixing system allows for easy and invisible fixing to the concrete plinth below. Galvanised steel framing and spotted gum battens were selected to ensure these elements look fantastic for many years with minimal maintenance.
The seat tops and concrete plinths supplied by Draffin are punctuated by striking green glazed brick book ends at each end. The overall result is quite stunning.
Boroondara’s standard suite
On top of the custom seating elements, Draffin also supplied a number of more standard items from the councils standard suite of urban furniture, and Draffin proprietary designs. Both these designs have been installed all over the municipality. These are Boroondara’s go to design when needing new standard furniture, and coupled with the custom designed curved seats and benches on this project, they fit straight in.
Working on a landscaping project? Our friendly sales team are always on hand to answer any questions you may have on customising our range of products.