Historically street furniture has been perceived as able to improve the street by reducing clutter, managing traffic, raising standards of public taste and even civilizing the country. That objects as ubiquitous as lampposts and parking meters could potentially fulfill such duties might seem surprising, and yet up until recently the design of street furniture remained connected with ideas of improvement. Increasingly however, the provision of such objects is led by private interests, which understand street furniture in terms of its financial value. Such a shift raises questions about those responsible for ‘producing’ what Ben Highmore calls ‘the designed environment’, and whether their agendas remain socially or economically motivated.

This paper will examine the notion that street furniture can improve public spaces as well as those who use them. Drawing on historical perceptions of street furniture design’s responsibilities, the paper will also look at contemporary ways in which different groups are subverting and appropriating public space through such objects. Yet in what way do their interventions improve society? And do they reflect a worrying return to environmental determinism? By addressing these issues, this paper ultimately seeks to examine more timely debates about how the designed environment is shaped, and for what purpose.