How can we declutter the street scene with street furniture?

Visual clutter is a common problem in urban areas today. An excess of signage, advertisements, and billboards can make sidewalks and public spaces feel congested and confusing. This clutter competes for the attention of pedestrians and makes it difficult for the eye to rest on anything for long. This is why it’s crucial to be particular when choosing street furniture for public spaces​.

Benches, bins, lighting, and other fixtures should be designed primarily for function rather than flash. After all, a coordinated street scene provides many benefits for the community and urban environment. In this article, you’ll learn about how street furniture enhances public spaces, various multipurpose street fixtures, and how to avoid street scene clutter in the first place.

How to use street furniture to avoid public space clutter

As mentioned, a cluttered street scene can negatively impact functionality and aesthetics. To prevent this, architects, contractors, designers, and government agencies need to cohesively plan to reduce visual clutter wherever feasible. Some strategies could be:

Plan early and holistically

Planning for street fixtures early in the design phase is crucial to avoiding clutter and redundancy. Creating a holistic master plan that considers all existing and potential future elements can help ensure items are properly placed from the outset. 

A comprehensive plan allows designers to identify redundant or misplaced items that could create clutter and remove or relocate them before implementation. This coordinated approach, which envisions all street elements as an integrated system, helps create a streetscape that is functional, aesthetically pleasing and avoids unnecessary visual clutter.

Prioritise multifunctionality

Using multipurpose fixtures provides significant advantages. For example, combining waste bins and seating areas into a single unit can save space while still meeting the needs of pedestrians. Similarly, notice cases with fingerposts indicating walking routes can help orient pedestrians and cyclists more effectively.

Multipurpose fixtures make the most of limited urban space and reduce the number of individual elements that can affect how a person perceives the street. Another advantage of multipurpose fixtures is that they are often more durable and vandal-resistant. By combining functions into single units, there are fewer separate components to damage or go missing, which can help reduce maintenance costs over time.

Maintain consistent design language

Coordinated street fixtures that use matching designs, colours and materials can help reduce visual clutter and improve the aesthetic appeal of a street. Using consistent designs for street furniture like benches, litter bins, bicycle racks, and other fixtures helps unify the streetscape and creates a more coherent visual environment. Consistency makes it easier for the eye to process what it sees, reducing visual competition and allowing pedestrians to focus on individual elements.

But how exactly do you ensure consistency in the design? Purchase products from a single supplier. When you coordinate your street fixtures from a single company, you can be confident that the designs work together to create a cohesive visual theme. The uniformity will help draw pedestrians’ attention to the positive aspects of the streetscape instead of being distracted by unsuited elements.

Avoid overuse of signage

The principle of ‘less is more’ in wayfinding suggests providing only the essential information needed to guide pedestrians through the environment. This avoids overloading people with too many signs, maps and directions. By focusing on simplicity, wayfinding systems can be more effective and less visually cluttered.

Implementing this principle involves only providing signage for key decision points where travellers need to choose between routes. Avoid placing them at every intersection. You should also use simple, clear language and symbols that convey the essential information in the most straightforward manner. Long explanations and unnecessary details should be omitted. 

Additionally, limit the number of directions and points of interest listed on maps and signage. Include only the most important places that most people want to find. Use consistency in design elements to help people recognise key information at a glance. This makes the wayfinding system easy to understand and use.

All of this results in an unobtrusive wayfinding system that does not overwhelm or confuse people with too much information.

Prioritise accessibility

Ensuring that the furniture enhances accessibility is essential to creating an inclusive streetscape for all users. When installing street fixtures, it is important to consider how they may impact accessibility and mobility, especially for people with disabilities or limited mobility. It’s also important to ensure elements like bins and signposts are placed in locations that do not obstruct circulation routes or block essential visibility.

Consider the scale and placement

To really see how street furniture enhances public spaces​, carefully choose fixtures that are appropriately sized and positioned for the space to avoid clutter and obstruction. In small spaces, avoid large, overpowering street elements that dominate the area. Instead, choose smaller scaled items that fit the intimate size and character of the space. This keeps circulation routes clear while providing functional street fixtures for seating, waiting and gathering.

Enhance public spaces with Hornbeck

Aesthetics isn’t the only consideration when managing street scene clutter–accessibility and usability for all street users must remain a top priority. By understanding how street furniture can enhance public spaces​, you can plan, design, and install them with an integrated, holistic approach that upholds the functional needs of the streetscape while minimising visual clutter that can detract from the street’s character.

If you’re looking to enhance your streetscape with tailored solutions, Hornbeck (formerly Made by Landmark) can help. Contact us today to discover how we can assist in streamlining urban spaces while improving aesthetics and functionality.