Metalco: Italian style driving a powerful social vision

Of all the street furniture design and manufacturing partners who work with Bailey Street Furniture Group (BSFG), one company occupies a unique position in the market through the way it blends original, cutting-edge design with a sustainability ethos that puts social and environmental goals at the heart of everything it does.

Metalco has been providing products that support sustainable urbanisation and the creation of socially connected public spaces since 1984. The company has partnered with BSFG for more than 10 years, offering a unique range of products through the group’s Artform Urban Furniture division.

What sets Metalco apart is its ‘Social Design for Real Life’ vision. This puts one goal at the core of the business: to create urban furniture which meets the needs of users most effectively in a way that is sustainable for the environment and for people. The company describes this neatly as ‘listening to the needs of today without sacrificing the needs of tomorrow’, meaning that its products are an ideal choice for developments in which sustainability is a priority.

Design flair with purpose

The design originality provided by Metalco is superbly illustrated in the products available in Artform Urban’s portfolio. Amongst these is the Folly bench, a Magis design classic that has been reinterpreted by manufacturing it entirely in HPC (high-performance concrete). This seeks to be dynamic, fluid and sinuous, resulting in a moving sculpture with high aesthetic value which is suitable for seating up to ten people and capable of embellishing all kinds of public and private spaces.

Metalco’s design excellence has long been recognised by industry peers and its products have won many accolades. These include the prestigious Red Dot Awards, which two of its products won in 2022 – the Air-Circle table with integrated stools designed by architect Massimo Tasca, and Kore, a wave-like concrete bench that can be connected together, designed by architect Michele Slaviero.

A hugely diverse range of products

Artform Urban offers a wide range of Metalco products to enable its innovative designs to be incorporated into many different types of projects. It also means that multiple Metalco products can be supplied for a single scheme with ease, offering the scope for quality and design consistency to apply throughout a development.

A perfect example of this was a project in North Wales to protect communities from the sea and upgrade a promenade. The Colwyn Bay Phase 2 scheme extended the coastal defences from Colwyn Bay beach to Rhos-on-Sea, which included transforming the promenade by widening it to offer more space for pedestrians and cyclists.

Several Metalco products were specified for this extensive project to deliver a vibrant seafront for tourists and the local community to utilise and enjoy. These included the monolithic concrete Anastasio and Makatite benches, which were chosen to offer durability with an elegant and minimal design, and Stone Bench multi-purpose free-shape seats.

A colourful dimension was introduced with Break Time tables and chairs, Bailo seating and Live loungers, with the wow factor provided by the Kore range of wave-like benches.

Extended creative potential through versatility and customisation

Whilst Metalco offers a wide range of street furniture products as part of its portfolio, there is always the scope to tailor designs to meet the specific needs of projects. The Artform Urban team works closely with Metalco’s design specialists to bring any vision to reality as a number of recent projects illustrate.

At Waterbeach Barracks in Cambridgeshire, Artform Urban was tasked with providing an extensive and accessible seating package to enhance the usability and aesthetic appeal of the public spaces within this new community. It supplied bespoke versions of Metalco’s Bull seating and picnic sets, resulting in 15 variants of inclusive furniture ranging from stools, benches and seats with backrests to picnic sets – all tailored to the client's needs to accommodate different abilities and generations.

In another project at the Metrocentre in Gateshead, bespoke versions of the Triangle Planter System were provided to combine modern aesthetics with functionality. Manufactured from powder-coated steel with integrated seating clad in Okoume sheets, this was the ideal solution for a busy retail environment.

And in Leeds, bespoke Box litter bins were provided by Artform Urban for the Wellington Place development. These attractive street furniture elements were customised to incorporate the development’s “WP” branding for aesthetic consistency.

Optimising sustainability and environmental excellence

One stand-out factor in Metalco’s approach to designing and manufacturing street furniture is its commitment to sustainability. The products it creates are designed to create sustainable communities but that is only part of the benefit offered by this brand.

The company is continuously looking at ways to reduce the environmental impact of its operations. It uses energy only from 100% sustainable sources and has more than 7,500 solar panels installed on the roofs of its factories to produce clean energy to fulfil the entire needs of its facilities.

The company also lives its 'Social Design for Real Life' philosophy by always focusing on people and creating products that promote sociability and collective well-being. It also encourages its employees to make use of the outdoor spaces it has set up with training facilities for physical activity.

As part of the globally renowned Agora Makers group of businesses, Metalco is a brand that Artform Urban and UK customers can depend on to deliver. The group’s reputation for excellence and reliability reflects the values of Metalco, providing additional strength and depth to support the business as it develops in the UK in partnership with Artform Urban.

Find out more about the Metalco range of street furniture collections available from Artform Urban here.