Design Standards – Steel Seat A 2022

Summary

This 3D printed model of a steel seat is a part of the 'Design Standards' survey of the furniture, utilities and objects along the stretch of Swanston Street from the northern side of Princes Bridge to the southern side of Victoria Street. The artwork is comprised of 45 individual objects. The artwork was initially exhibited at Cathedral Cabinet (Cathedral Arcade on Swanston Walk) in 2022, and later displayed in the NGV's Melbourne Now (Civic Architecture exhibition) in 2023. Established by Anna Jankovic and André Bonnice in 2020, Simulaa is an architecture practice with an emphasis on cultural and place-specific projects.

"Design Standards is a survey of the furniture, utilities and objects along the stretch of Swanston Street from the northern side of Princes Bridge to the southern side of Victoria Street. These artefacts proliferate along the hoddle grid, arising with staccato frequency. The City of Melbourne’s slated review of the city’s street furniture sets the stage for this project, permitting a rethinking of the ways in which the urban landscape is punctuated with activity. The name of the project is a reference to the documents that guide the design and construction of the city’s public spaces.

These objects have been stripped of context, wrought in identical scale and material finish, allowing direct comparison and absolute proximity. The works have been realised at a common miniature scale - 1:12. This is the scale of the Fisher Price dollhouse, and the ratio of Gulliver to the Lilliputians. This shift allows us to appreciate these urban fixtures anew. A portion of these objects represent a considered effort on the part of the CoM to shepherd a streetscape. However, there are also ad-hoc objects, designed by disparate groups over disparate time scales. Present are remnants of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW), and other defunct bodies. Even among the designed and controlled CoM objects we see minor changes in objects - perforations in bins get smaller, then vanish altogether. The imposition of an attempt at urban strategy lays bare the nature of the street as a living organism that resists legibility and consistency.

Present also are apparatuses of the street’s own introspection - three to four metre survey towers that scan the street for any change that might result from the tunnelling works below. These towers expose the subterranean life of the city, as well as the fluctuations and movement that occur on the surface of something that lends itself to being read as static, stable and fixed." - Simulaa, exhibition text from 'Design Standards' display at Cathedral Cabinet, 2022