Author(s): Darrel Conybeare; Bill Morrison

Architecture

A leap of faith by two architects and urban designers saw a new venture to design, manufacture and sell furniture for the public domain of cities. The initiative kick-started an industry in Australia, and supported an emerging focus on urban design, landscape design and placemaking.In the 1960s, urban design emerged as a discipline, providing focus to city form and the space between buildings, which was generally not the priority of either town planning or architectural practitioners.Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison have been pioneers of the practice of urban design, and in contrast to the trend towards internationalism, they have focused on local qualities, drawing out the unique features of places with references to layers of history and urban memory.This has been reflected in their approach to Street Furniture Australia, not only producing public furniture that is elegant and comfortable so that people might enjoy being in the public domain, but also developing industrial processes for manufacturing it, and producing public furniture capable of enhancing the quality and identity of a city.