RMIT engaged designers to devise a visual and physical deterrent to vehicles entering the RMIT courtyard at speed.

Skeptical of the message of intrusion that bollards communicate, landscape architectural firm, Openwork, proposed a landform that would invite pedestrians to use it and would provide outlooks to the plaza and the city.

The unique concept design, consisting of various complex curved timbers wrapped over a steel sub-frame, was presented to SPARK for consideration.

The initial schematic required modification by SPARK to make it suitable for manufacture in our factory and workshop. The end result is an impressive and beautiful form, comprising more than 430 individually machined Accoya timber slats, mounted on a stepped, sheet metal frame, which accomodates the sloping site.

The manufacture of the elliptical bollard, over eight metres in diameter, was done  to millimetre tolerances, in order to fit the sloping and stepped site, and was managed through the clever use of multiple 3D point clouds.