Build June (2016)

Build Magazine 80 The future of city planning: Intelligent street furniture complacency is the enemy of the ambitious city. The objects that furniture our city streets are an important part of this ongoing revolution. Street signs, advertising hoardings, bus stops, litter bins, bollards, telephone exchange boxes, benches and traffic lights are all categorised as street furniture and are revolutionising the way planners and citizens view a city. Pioneering firms have had the foresight to understand how the ever-quickening pace of technological advancement will inevitably come to redefine how we think of everything from public litter bins and street lighting to bollards and information boards. It’s now up to pioneering planners to decide when, where and which of this technology to include into their cities and for what purpose. There are many different intelligent street furniture options, and many more to come in the near future. They serve a key purpose in our cities, and are designed to give every citizen a positive experience, and to help them navigate this space effectively. The most powerful aspect of intelligent street furniture at the moment is the support offered to a variety of individual groups. The Loci range, currently provided by construction specialists Marshalls (www. marshalls.co.uk/commercial ), uses cutting- edge M-Live technology to respond to individual citizen’s needs as they come into range. Our cities are currently designed to fit as many individual needs as possible into one space. As there are different groups and needs, it’s difficult to always match everyone’s requirements. For example, having lots of seating areas is great for the elderly who may require frequent breaks, but can prove an additional challenge for the visually impaired who would benefit from fewer obstacles to manoeuvre. To put this into more context, the Loci Intelligent Lantern will burn brighter for the visually impaired or anyone else who requires extra light. This function is triggered by keyfobs carried, as well as Smartphones after initial sign-up for this support. The M-Live technology can also be applied to traffic lights enabling those who require a little extra time to cross the street due to age or disability to trigger the green man to remain on for an extended period thereby giving them the time to cross safely. These benefits may seem like a small addition for someone not part of the vulnerable group, but can mean a less stressful, less exerting and far more positive experience for the groups who benefit from this. The power of city data As discussed by the BBC, the most progressive cities are beginning to see intelligent street furniture as a tool for two-way dialogue with their citizens. An urban population is no longer passive, moving through spaces designed according to someone else’s ideas about what will work best. Instead, data on the way people use and adapt to the city streets and the objects they encounter will be recorded and will impact how those same streets are developed. Some intelligent street furniture works by collecting large quantities of data, which can be utilised in a number of ways. For example, London’s street furniture collects information for the 500 datasets published online and updates in real-time, telling citizens everything from how far away the bus is to how heavy air pollution is. For an urban space to thrive it must keep up with the times, adopting the most innovative technology to stay relevant and attractive to businesses and newcomers. Cities which stay abreast of the latest developments in environmental planning are the ones that have happier, more productive populations.