Landscape Forms: A global leader in high-design and integrated outdoor solutions

Imaginative design gives site owners the potential to transform the functionality, aesthetics and value of outdoor spaces in ways that could not have been envisaged in previous generations. And one of the Bailey Street Furniture Group (BSFG) brand partners at the forefront of challenging convention with design-led, superbly crafted and original integrated outdoor solutions is Landscape Forms.

Landscape Forms is an industry leader in high-design outdoor furniture, advanced LED lighting, structure, and custom environments. For more than 50 years, the US company has been developing and creating solutions that help designers and clients achieve beautiful, functional landscapes that enhance the experience of outdoor space.

Its solutions include a wide range of elements from adaptive outdoor structures, seating, shelters and signage to bike racks and bollards, litter bins and LED lights. These are developed on evidence – and experience – to enable Landscape Forms to design and manufacture products that most effectively address the needs of customers and emerging issues.

Landscape Forms’ business is built on a foundation of “design, culture and craft” which drives everything the company does. This shines through in their collections and their approach to business, which is about creating outdoor environments that promote wellbeing, inspire creativity, spark social interactions, encourage presence and stimulate innovation.

Enhancing spaces with an exceptional visual experience

One of the areas that really sets Landscape Forms apart is its pioneering lighting range. Its ability to expertly integrate the latest technology, high performance, a passion for design innovation, and a commitment to the quality of craft, delivers products that do much more than turning night into day.

An excellent example of how these can be applied is a project undertaken by BSFG’s Artform Urban division for the developer of a high-end care home in North West London. The project by Signature Senior Lifestyle to redevelop the Grade II listed 18th Century Hendon Manor, which included the creation of new contemporary luxury accommodation, utilised several products from Landscape Forms’ Ashbery lighting range to provide high quality external lighting with a timeless design.

The trio of Ashbery lights were incorporated into the building grounds which include accessible terraces, green spaces and paths, providing a relaxing and secluded environment for residents to enjoy. Winding paths throughout the leafy gardens are illuminated by Ashbery path lights, and wall-mounted versions stand out against the red brick walls. Tall pole-mounted pedestrian units line the entrance to complete the package for superb and consistent visual appeal.

Creating new, fully-equipped outdoor spaces through integrated solutions

In addition to providing individual products that can be used in isolation or combined to form a collection, Landscape Forms also facilitates the creation of new outdoor spaces for socialising, work, study or play. These take the form of structure solutions which provide versatile bases for these types of settings. What they seek to offer are the resources that people need to bring the fundamental aspects of everyday life outdoors without sacrificing on beauty, productivity, comfort and social interaction.

Amongst these solutions available from Artform Urban is a collection created by KEM Studio. Founders Jonathon Kemnitzer and Brad Satterwhite created the Upfit and Backdrop solutions based on the idea of “better design better living”, a philosophy that merged industrial design and architecture to approach projects more holistically.

Upfit is an adaptive structure with a modern style and endless flexibility to transform spaces into small community hangouts that invite people to create experiences. It can leverage value by transforming underutilised spaces on corporate, academic, and healthcare campuses and within public and transport areas into sought-out destinations that provide power, light, surfaces, and shelter from the elements.

The concept is based on a standard single 16' x 16' base unit configured with a choice of elements from the modular system, including posts, beams, roofing, panels and tables. It can be designed to create multiple separate areas, for seclusion and the semblance of privacy, and include smart and automated louvered roofing to manage the weather.

Backdrop is a system of modular panels and accessories with a simple, yet important purpose, to define the outdoor spaces where people want to be. Rather than simply providing physical delineation, however, Backdrop is designed to create inviting spaces which consider the human, emotional component of how these spaces make people feel, where they can appear in their daily lives, and the types of moments these spaces help inspire.

A variety of configurations can be achieved by utilising its different panel shape options, connectors at 90 or 120 degrees, as well as T, Y or X-shaped, plus numerous panel fill options, posts and accessories. Its versatility enables superbly-equipped outdoor spaces to be created complete with features such as USB charging ports, dining or standing height tables, floating shelfs and bike racks.

Fast track products without compromise

For projects requiring premium quality, creatively-designed street furniture products in short lead times, Landscape Forms’ Fast Track range is ideal. Available from Artform Urban, this provides a core range of high quality timber and durable anodised aluminium framed seating, benches, litter bins and tables.

Clients have commissioned Fast Track products for a wide variety of projects where high design quality is required, but working to a tight project schedule is equally important. One Artform Urban project which benefitted from Fast Track products was the development of a new Moto motorway service station in Warwickshire. The client sought to create a stylish outdoor area to provide drivers and travellers with an attractive space to break their journeys, and this led to a specification including the Multiplicity bench.

In another project at Edge Hill University, FGP Seats, FGP Benches and FGP Bins from Landscape Forms were installed as part of an innovative £26 million building development, named Catalyst. The street furniture products were incorporated into a roof terrace which not only increased space, but created an attractive landscaped area for building users to enjoy.

Excellence in outdoor seating and benches

The Landscape Forms portfolio is particularly strong when it comes to seating and benches. Its Parallel 42 bench is a stylish modular timber bench which provides flexibility and a contemporary look. It can complement any social space and provide ample seating in busy areas as a project by Artform Urban to refurbish EY’s Manchester office building demonstrates. The product has become a staple in street furniture design, which is often imitated, but this is the original and best in terms of quality design and materials.

In another project, Strata Beam Seating was provided for Angel Centre in Islington, London. Here, the seating provided an interesting aesthetic dynamic for the shopping destination with its subtly faceted concrete legs creating an interesting play between light and shadow, and the timber slats matching the flooring chosen for the bridge. Armrests were also added to several of the benches to provide additional accessibility for users.

Two further projects by Artform Urban show the extent of the design options for seating and benches available from Landscape Forms. In Nottingham, its colourful Chill seating was chosen for a roof terrace created as part of the Ten Traffic Street student accommodation development. And in Liverpool, Generation 50 seating was chosen for outdoor spaces at the newly built Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, and Arts and Humanities facility at the University of Liverpool.

Continuously innovating and future-focused

Traditional craftsmanship underpins everything created by Landscape Forms, but that does not hold back the company. The company blends craft skills with technology, making it highly innovative, particularly in terms of applying new materials for the manufacture of street furniture as its MeldStone concrete cast street furniture illustrates.

This material’s unique composition and process provides Landscape Forms’ designers and engineers with a greater degree of creative freedom than they would working with traditional cast concrete. It provides the opportunity to achieve really thin cross-sections of cast concrete with a lot of structural stability, which raises the bar on what cast concrete outdoor furniture can be.

And its sustainability strategy is equally forward-looking. Landscape Forms was founded by a landscape architect and outdoor enthusiast, which means sustainability, stewardship and a profound respect for natural spaces are deeply rooted in the company’s DNA.

Its Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) initiative provides a cradle-to-grave examination of the carbon footprint of all major material categories at every product stage, including upstream materials, core manufacturing, packaging, transport, use, maintenance, and disposal at end of life. This provides transparency to better understand the impact of Landscape Forms as a whole and helps to inform customers in respect of the impact of their designs.

Find out more about the Landscape Forms partnership with BSFG.