In cities around the world, the issue of residents` safety has become one of the key urban challenges. With the rapid growth of the population living in urban areas, ensuring a safe and friendly environment has become a priority for local authorities and urban planners. One of the innovative and increasingly popular approaches to improving urban safety is the use of modern solutions in the form of designer urban furniture. 

In this article, we will focus on the role of urban furniture in improving the safety of residents. We will learn about the variety of available solutions and their impact on urban space and social life. Also, we will look at examples of cities that have brought innovative urban furniture and noticed positive effects in improving public safety.

The role of urban furniture in improving public safety

Street furniture is a significant urban element, and its functionality, aesthetics and strategic placement can affect the quality of residents` life and the safety of public spaces. First of all, urban furniture, such as properly placed benches, bicycle racks or pergolas, create attractive, functional and friendly places for meetings, rest and recreation for residents. Open and friendly public spaces that provide the opportunity to spend time outdoors encourage greater social activity and participation in the life of the city. The more people use such spaces, the greater the social control, which reduces the possibility of criminal incidents. 

Secondly, properly designed urban furniture can act as barriers and obstacles that make it more difficult for potential criminals to engage in undesirable activities, such as vandalism, theft or destruction of property. In addition, properly placed streetlights and lighting around street furniture improve the illumination of public spaces, which in turn deters potential offenders.

Thirdly, urban furniture plays a key role in shaping the identity of a local community. Their unique design and thoughtful location can attract tourists and residents, making public spaces more open and welcoming, which affects the sense of community and social ties. Strengthening the bonds to a place results in increased involvement of residents when it comes to caring for the safety of their surroundings. 

In conclusion, urban furniture brings many benefits to public safety. It provides meeting and recreation areas that foster a greater presence of residents in public spaces, leading to more significant social control and reduced risk of crime. Its proper design as barriers and lighting elements also has the effect of reducing potential threats. At the same time, street furniture has the power to shape a city’s identity and encourage the community to actively participate in its life. Therefore, developing and investing in innovative and functional urban furniture is a key component of an effective strategy to improve safety and quality of life in the city.

Innovative street furniture – modern solutions for cities 

Innovative street furniture is now a key part of urban development, integrating modern technology with functionality and aesthetics. Terra Group, a leader in the field of city furniture design and manufacturing, stands out for its innovative approach, offering unique solutions that perfectly fit the requirements of today’s urban communities.

Functionality versus aesthetics – key factors in urban furniture design

Functionality and aesthetics are two key factors that inevitably interact in the process of designing urban furniture. The right combination of these elements is not only important for meeting the practical needs of users, but also has a huge impact on the perception of public spaces by residents and tourists.

Above all, the functionality of urban furniture plays a key role in ensuring convenience and usability. Street furniture should fulfill specific tasks, such as enabling seating, relaxation, storage or waste segregation. The choice of appropriate materials and design must take into account resistance to weather conditions, intensive use and ease of maintenance. In addition, city furniture can also be equipped with additional features, such as USB chargers, Wi-Fi internet access points or photovoltaic panels, which increases its usability.

On the other hand, the aesthetics of urban furniture play an important role in creating friendly and attractive public spaces. Innovative and aesthetic design can encourage residents to use the furniture and influence the positive perception of urban space. Aesthetic street furniture adds charm and character to an area, and its carefully selected design can complement a city’s architecture, emphasizing its identity and style.

It is also important that the functionality and aesthetics of street furniture meet the needs and preferences of the local community. Including residents in the design process and consulting with them can lead to the development of furniture that really fulfil expectations of users, harmoniously blending in with the surrounding landscape. An important aspect is also the durability and quality of street furniture. Strong and solid furniture is more resistant to weather conditions and intensive use, resulting in longer life and lower maintenance costs. 

Examples of transformed cities thanks to street furniture 

Legnica, Poland

Dębno, Poland

Bielsko-Biała, Poland

Opole, Poland

Łabiszyn, Poland

Although Easter time has just passed, in some places we can still admire amazing Easter decorations. It turns out that more and more local communities are becoming very creative when it comes to decorating their urban spaces. This season, the Kozienice Municipality also took on such a challenge, and we have to admit that the result is simply stunning!

XXL fiberglass eggs as a canvas for local artists

As we mentioned in the previous article, residents have many possibilities when it comes to painting XXL Easter eggs. In some towns the eggs were decorated by kindergarten children, in others by local professional artists. It was no different in Kozienice — the local community joined forces and prepared the urban space for the coming Easter.

XXL Easter eggs in the Kozienice Municipality were made by younger and older residents, including local artists.

Decorating Easter eggs was a social act and art materials were donated by the Mayor of Kozienice — Piotr Kozłowski.

We love this creative approach to decorating urban space—it serves all residents, and such actions certainly support establishing closer relations among neighbors. Beautifully painted eggs in the Kozienice Municipality delight everyone, which is why we strongly encourage you to visit the town and maybe even… join the action next year?

Thank you very much for the photos and congratulations to all the artists!

Public space is becoming an increasingly popular topic, so it is no wonder that we care about ergonomic solutions, greater comfort for residents and lush greenery in cities. Thanks to the growing social awareness, more and more design offices aim to improve urban space. It is for such initiatives that Polska Gazeta Wyborcza (one of the most popular polish magazines) organized the competition called Humanly Designed, which aims to select unique ideas. Last week, the final gala was held, and we could meet the winners of this year’s edition.

A more sustainable city

Various organizations applied for the competition: associations, designers, foundations, cooperatives, design teams, architects and entrepreneurs. There was even a special category for teenagers under 18 to reward them for their involvement in social initiatives for cities in Poland. All these groups are united by the desire to make cities more pleasant and accessible space for citizens. Sometimes it means launching multi-functional solutions, and other times it means the solutions that are smarter, greener or safer.

The guiding idea of the competition is, above all, to emphasize human needs. Urban space is supposed to serve residents and make them feel comfortable. Cities should be functional, but also pleasant, to encourage people to spend time outdoors!

As the main values of the jury turned out to be very consistent with the vision of Terra Group, we decided to submit Gianto city pots to participate in the competition.

Gianto flower pot—humanly designed multi-functionality

The idea that guided us when submitting Gianto pots to the competition was to emphasize that one pot can provide many creative possibilities. After all, Gianto is a simple, yet unique planter that perfectly adapts to the needs of urban space and changes the environment for the better. Its main task is to launch greenery where it might seem impossible due to lack of access to the ground, underground installations, specific conditions — narrow streets, garage underneath, constructions with load limitations. We designed the Gianto planter so that it would meet even the most difficult conditions posed by urban space, and at the same time it would delight passers-by.

The shape of the Gianto pot is inspired by a classic pot. As a result of playing with the form, new variants were created, which bring additional functionalities. The flattened SITO can be used as a bench, TABLO and GRANDE are the largest models and such a scale is hard to find anywhere else — you can plant trees in them without worrying about space for their roots.

The most important advantages of the Gianto pot are:

• XXL form, because large spaces need properly selected elements of street furniture,
• the possibility of planting beautiful, lush flowers or even trees,
• high-quality material that allows you to choose a variety of colors,
• production in Poland.

A pot that became a bench

A beautifully planted pot encourages you to stay near it as long as possible. This is how the idea for compatible seats with the Gianto pot came about.  They give you a chance to rest surrounded by greenery and in a few moments, the pot changes into a designer city bench.

Wave Bench

The wave-inspired bench is a seat that winds around the Gianto planters. This modular solution easily adapts to the needs and space, and at the same time looks extraordinary. What if you could combine two, three, five, seven pots with a seat? This is not a problem for the Wave bench, because it consists of several basic elements that fit together like building blocks. As a result, a very functional piece of street furniture is created each time. The original shape of the bench makes it possible for different groups of people to sit on it at the same time, and each of them will have space for themselves.

Zebra Bench

A round bench with a Gianto pot in the center gives you great opportunities to personalize the design. Each seat rung may look different, but the effect is phenomenal every time.

Can a city pot connect people?

We wanted our pots not to be just containers planted with plants. That is why we are extremely pleased that Gianto pots often become part of social initiatives: joint planting of plants, a canvas for local artists or a distinctive element of events. Thanks to this, they help to build awareness of the need for everyday contact with nature, respect and care for the common good, and also show that the cooperation of residents leads to beautiful effects.

One function is definitely not enough!

The Gianto pot is a decoration, a chance for additional greenery, a promotion for the city, a suitable container for trees, a bench, a railing, an element that separates space, a Christmas decoration, part of a social initiative, a canvas for local artists. We are very happy that we could take part in such an important competition for urban space. We hope you like our idea too! More information about the competition and the list of awarded projects can be found here.

All city residents want to live comfortably in their space, therefore, it is very important to take care of the landscape elements. We pay attention not only to places for waste segregation, public benches or playgrounds, but also to quite specific components of urban life. Of course, this applies to urban decorations that should please the eye of passers-by and build a coherent image of the city. After all, it is a natural human need to surround oneself with aesthetic objects. As the awareness of this subject is increasing among city authorities and local communities, one can notice more and more interestingly developed urban spaces. We admire various art installations, exhibitions of local artists and commemorative plaques. At such moments, however, one question arises: could urban decorations also perform practical functions?

Modern street furniture

One of the most interesting ideas in contemporary design is creating useful street furniture. Such facilities not only meet the tangible need of the residents, which is integration and joint recreation in urban space, but also add an artistic flair to every place. For this reason, more and more cities decide to set up designer, modern public benches or flower containers to combine two goals in one:  the comfort of residents and the revival of public space.

People, who want to enliven their surroundings with bright colors, will certainly be interested in colorful, metal city benches. It is definitely a more budget option than art installations, as it will work in any space. Colorful benches attract not only the eyes of tourists and residents, but also themselves – passers-by will be much more willing to rest on a designer bench, which originally fits into the urban space. Importantly, such benches are made of various metals, making them much more durable. It is also impossible to ignore their advantages during bad weather; after the rain, it is enough to wipe their handrails with a tissue, and not, as in the case of traditional wooden benches, to wait for many hours for their drying.

Public benches in non-standard, geometric shapes will work in the same way. Furniture with an artistic touch will add a designer character to each district—it will refresh the historic, traditional promenades, and will also match the fronts of modern hotels. In these cases, street furniture in gray or graphite colors will be a good choice.

How to take advantage of street furniture in a creative way?

A very original way to arrange street furniture is to use a construction that will allow to combine a bench with a flower pot. Thanks to this, it will be possible to launch greenery into the center of every city. What’s more, passers-by will be delighted with a bit of shade in which they can rest during hot days. A designer example of combining urban greenery with a public bench is the street furniture set, called QUINTOS, which goes together with GIANTO. This modular set allows you to freely integrate several large pots with wavy, modern benches. The unique advantage of this collection will be the ability to adjust the row of benches, colors of pots and their sizes to your individual idea.

Those who miss colors in urban space may like the idea of vibrant, round ZEBRA benches, which go with GIANTO pots. This uncommon project has already gathered a lot of fans, which can be admired, for example, in Łabiszyn (check the photo below).

Another multi-functional solution is the combination of flower pots with bicycle racks. Such a decoration of a car park or promenade may encourage more people to use ecological means of transport, and at the same time, it will provide greenery to the public space. Placing such facilities between a busy street and a pavement will also ensure the safety of passers-by, which is a great advantage, especially in larger cities. Some also decide to aesthetically block the car traffic on the promenade… for which they use modular urban furniture — benches, the Flower Towers or litter bins. This solution will certainly increase the comfort of residents in many places.

You can read more about such projects in our posts on:

• street furniture in Łabiszyn.