As a mentor and manufacturer for Adelaide’s NAG (New Architects and Graduates) Design Festival Competition, Spark were enthusiastic about the challenge of working on the winning designs from a competition to produce more lively street fixtures for Adelaide’s cultural precinct, Rundle Street.

An innovation of the Adelaide City Council in collaboration with NAG and Spark, the winning seating system was designed by architects and Uni SA tutors, Sasha Radjenovich and Sean Humphries.

Titled ‘Folding Rundle’, it is inspired by people's constant changes in behaviour in the way they interact with and behave in a street. “People never walk in straight lines… their attention is drawn to different things,” Sasha Radjenovich says. 

The designs were made from laser-cut and folded galvanised mild steel, and incorporated lighting, speakers, and recording devices that captured and played back 10 to 15 second snippets of people's conversations to add to the "murmur" in the street.

Asymmetrical in design, accurate prototyping was essential to ensure accuracy, and to address multiple manufacturing challenges without compromising the design's sleek lines. 

The ‘Folding Rundle’ furniture suite became part of the Rundle Street Upgrade, on the city’s east side.