Research on Integral Design and Innovation of Street Furniture in Hangzhou
Hui Shao
Industrial Design Research Institute
Zhejiang University of Technology
Hangzhou, P.R.China
louisfmail@126.com
Ahstract-The design of street furniture has been attached
great significance by society and government due to great
impetus brought by urban construction process. In this paper
a comprehensive investigation is conducted on the development
of street furniture in Hangzhou and street furniture and design
practices are studied deeply, on the basis of which an
integrated design perspective on the construction of street
furniture with Hangzhou characteristics is put forth with a
view to play drawing lessons to similar issues encountered in
the development of urban construction.
Keywords-city image, street furniture, integration and
innovation
1. INTRODUCTION
The fundamental purpose to promote qualities of urban
life is to realize the transition from urban construction
oriented to human oriented. Economic and cultural
development in a city will be evaluated from perspective of
demand satisfaction. While big cities are facilitating
economic development, the promotion of city images is
being attached increasingly attention. City image serves like
a name card and is of prime importance to the city
development. Meanwhile, many problems concerning the
design of street furniture have been brought by the rapid
development of cities, marginal expansion and complication
of interior structure.
The manifesto of urban aesthetics and promotion of city
images tend to be the combination of the spirit and
expressional forms of a city. Only through this, can the
research of city aesthetics be distinguished. Meanwhile,
continuous development of city is bound to reappraise new
aesthetic phenomena, aesthetic experience and aesthetic
theory [1]. Street furniture aesthetics and informatization of
city traffic serve purely small step in the city aesthetical
process of Hangzhou. Actually, street furniture cannot be
discounected from city construction. Therefore, how to
promote city images and manifest city aesthetics through the
integration and iunovation of street furniture system becomes
the important point in the research [2]. City images can
provide the design street furniture with formal languages full
of distinctive city personalities and regional characters.
These formal languages in tum display city images in
appropriate ways.
Various factors facilitate the formation and positioning of
city images. Above all things, the material base displayed in
a good piece of street furniture exists in the manufacturing
technology. Fabric, processing technique or limitation in the
978-1-4244-7974-0110/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
101
Bing Xu
Institute of Interaction Design
Zhejiang University of Technology
Hangzhou, P.R.China
xubing@zjut.edu.cn
structure may cause direct influence upon the
implementation or dispose of a design scheme. In this sense,
material selection and processing technique are included in
the deep study. The full consideration of function, material,
manufacturing technology and minimized cost of street
furniture serves an important factor in the design, which is
also a part in the integration of current street furniture system
[3J [4].
This paper puts forth constructive thinking on the
development of Hangzhou street furniture system from such
directions as functional integration & city life, formal
languages & regional culture, positive designing & street
furniture system. With respect to the great upsurge in the
development of street furniture, the design of street furniture
should be conducted in accordance with ideology of
integrated construction, concept of systematic design and
positive and all-dimensional humane construction.
II. STATUS AND PROBLEMS OF STREET FURNITURE IN
HANGZHOU
The word "Street Furniture" is originated from European
and American countries and refers to in general urban public
environmental facilities as bus shelter, news-stand, telephone
booth, dust bin, automatic toilet machines, leisure chairs,
street lamps, guardrail, traffic signs, guide signs, billboard,
flower pots, city sculptures, sports facilities and recreational
facilities for kids scattered in the streets of the city. As for
cities, "street furniture" has at least two features. On one
hand it should be usable, dependable and clean. On the other
hand, it decorates, creates and highlights atmosphere. Street
furniture which is rationally and exquisitely designed can be
both convenient for use and recreation in urban life.
Therefore, what distinguishes street furniture from average
furniture is that as constitution of landscape of city, street
furniture should be universally featured publicity and
"intercommunity". Therefore, street furniture is playing a
due role and effect in outdoor spatial environment and it is
an important facility in urban landscape environment. In
addition, there is an interactive relation between street
furniture and urban landscape, which are supplementing each
other.
A. Background of City Development in Hangzhou
South Yangtze culture characterized by high grade and
vitality is derived from the communication and collision
between culture of North Central Plains and Chu culture in
Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Hangzhou appropriately
combines nature with culture, leading to the humanity III. INTEGRATION AND INNOVATION OF STREET
temperament in which the unity of heaven and humanity and FURNITURE IN HANGZHOU
ink painting spirit full of oriental feel are permeated. In the
The purpose is to continue the history, culture and
very beginning of development, �he ideal �f Chinese
aesthetic characteristics of Hangzhou, construct Chinese
homeland "association of lake and CIty, mountam and lane
contemporary "city aesthetics", carry forward and �evelop
face to face" was contained and continued in the construction
city construction from the root of nature and hum�mty �nd
ofHangzhou where the natural scenery pattern of "the city is
develop Hangzhou into a stylistic, unique, attractlve, VItal
surrounded by misty hills all but one side" is formed [5]. .
and competitive city.
As a world's best-habitat city, Hangzhou's economIC
strength tops No. 1 in Zhejiang province with rapid A. Function Integration and City Life
development of each industry. How to make accurate As the public facilities for use and relax in a city, street
identification of its position has now become a problem furniture is supposed to be the result of "publicity" and
which must be solved. It was pointed out to forge the city "intercommunity" functioning in spatial environments in
human spirit "exquisite, harmonious, top quality and open" modem city. Street furniture offers direct service for people
inHangzhou in 2002 and then the year of 2004 wimessed the in recreational activities in public places. This makes street
establishing of city development mode "harmonious furniture not only have the common features of general
undertaking-starting". In 2006, the goal of city development furniture, but also have the factor which can create affinity in
"city of quality life" was developed. The above three the easiest way in the city environment. Moreover, street
concepts reflect the formation and trend of city development furniture is indispensible and important part in visual and
idea ofHangzhou. environmental system. In this paper, the renovation and
B. Status and Problems of Street Furniture in Hangzhou innovation of street furniture system in Fuxing Road in
Hangzhou will be studied. This paper will focus on the
At present, the street fumiture system in Hangzhou is
renovation of "two booths" and "two poles" in Fuxing Road.
irrational in layout. Some places are equipped with street
The "two booths" refer to bus shelter (city bike shelter) and
furniture while some other places are not; some places are
news-stand. The other booths of welfare lotteries and parking
over-equipped with street furniture, which lea�s to . ill city
charges will be banned and their functions will b� integrat�d.
order street furniture is placed in wrong 10catlOn m some
"Two poles" refer to light poles and transportatlon markmg
distri�ts, which causes safety risk and influences city
poles. . .
appearance. The excessive modeling language wil� �ead to
Bikes as convenient vehicles play Important roles m
visual distractions and fails to highlight the personalitles of a
Hangzho�, a tourist city. The public bike shelter service
city. The problem concerning various forms, different so/les
system in Hangzhou adopts "fixed-pointed units" which are
and lack of integrated design exist in the street furnIture
placed in districts of landscape and famous scenery.
system of Hangzhou. Modeling la�guage should . be closely
However, at present, the single function of bike shelter
related to city images. As modelmg language IS evolved
service system is responsible for the lack of humanity
from history, region, humanity and personalities of a c.ity, it
consideration for users and inconvenience of management of
is the direct display of city images and only through thIS can
maintenance personnel. The bike shelter can be perfected
it interpret the unique temperament and image� of a city. O.n
through integration of public service information. The
the other hand, modeling design of street furnIture system IS
isolated news-stand, telephone booth, vending machine and
also one of effective ways to promote overall images and
information services are included in bike shelter service.
quality life of a city [6]. . Visual pollution is finally reduced by integrating various
However, in practice, some modeling language falls to be
booths and decreasing the quantities of booths in the road.
manufactured with good quality, which causes the mess in
The integrated bike shelter service system becomes a public
current street furniture system. For the reason that relevant
service center which unifies public cycling service, telephone
government departments vary in the requirement of street
booth, news-stand, lottery stand, vending machine, taxi stand,
furniture system and need different functionality an� �hat
intelligent alarm system of public security and other services
design department, manufacturers and . mU�lclpal
together. The installation of bike shelters is supposed to .t>e
departments hold different viewpoints, the deSIgn m the
close to the inner side of curb. Bike shelters attached WIth
drawing paper cannot become made-up articles due to
advertising light boxes can be placed in the event of no
limitation of technology and manufacturing technique. Once
influence upon entry of pedestrian and interest of business�s
technique fails to display the effect, many details, essences in
and the public. At the same time, public transport system �s
the design have to be abandoned, which contributes to the
planned according to public services and differs from public
poor quality and inelegance of street furniture. Wh�t's most
transport system in foreign countries.
important, street furniture can only b� processed m . ra�her
than manufactured in large quantlty due to limIted B. Innovation in Form and Reorganization in Structure
production scale and lack of technology existing in local Design factors of street furniture can be dug in traditio�al
manufacturers. These unfavorable factors lead directly to the form, local styles, characteristics of material, colors of a CIty
wide range of street fumiture and lack of integration. and other urban prototypes with high aesthetic value. So the
continuity of visual and environmental development, inner
structure and essential orders can be maintained and

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perfected to endow new life to the landscape environment
and develop it into carriers of spirit and capacity to interpret
regional images, reflect value orientation of traditional
culture and draw new culture [7][8].
The design of street nameplate, which applies the
features of Chinese-styled old furniture and turning-in foots
of old building to the overall appearance, stands good
reflection of classical look and grace of Hangzhou. At the
same time, the combination of Chinese-styled door leaf with
empty carving in window frame promotes a better sense of
space. In this way, traditional modeling language is reflected
by modem designing. Modularized designing can integrate
the functions of traffic information with functions of
advertising information through common module.
Basic module units are set up and eight groups of units
include all the street nameplates of a city. At first, a module
with size of 90CMx90CM is set, and then all the street
nameplates are organized by these units. For example, one
nameplate stands the size of one module and medium-sized
traffic lane nameplate takes up the area of six modules.
Large traffic nameplate is organized by 15 modules. In this
way, the unity and standardization of traffic nameplate can
be realized. In spite of different sizes of nameplates, they can
be enlarged according to aesthetical theory, which will
visually develop the effect of tidiness, see Fig.I.
3x5
1x3••••• 2x4
•••••••••
••••••••••••
Figure I. Modularized Designing of Street Furniture
IV. CONCLUSION
The birth and development of street furniture aesthetics
has met the realistic demand of modem society and it is the
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reasonable consequence to fit new aesthetic changes of
modem society. It has integrated aesthetic concept based on
the nature of adhering to functions. The integration of "two
poles" and "two booths" is adapted to the fullest extent from
functions, forms, colors, materials as well as technologies. It
is simple in form, various in functions, and uniform and
systemic in unity. With respect to development status and
speed of urban construction, especially the knowledge of role
and influence, the design and research of street furniture is
still lagging behind. It is very urgent to have the
environmental ideas to design street furniture based on the
complete environment system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research work is supported by Zhejiang Provincial
Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. YI090I69 ).
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