A suite of hardwearing, DDA-compliant furniture was specified for the Amberton Beach Lighthouse Park in Eglinton, WA to meet requirements for accessibility, heavy use and all-weather performance. Designed by Emerge Associates for Stockland, the beachside adventure park features a Wood Without Worry aluminium woodgrain suite of furniture in Beach Oak Grey.
An 8.5-metre Lighthouse Tower stands tall at the heart of the $5-million foreshore precinct, which also features picnic areas, tunnel slides, ship play structure, rope maze, sand play, basketball court and stairs leading directly down to the beach. The park attracts crowds throughout the year and the furniture has been selected to cater to large groups of people or community events as well as stand up to the environment.
Emerge specified park DDA seats for installation at key places around the park. Park DDA settings with matching benches also provide places for people to get together, dine and socialise.
The seats and tables have been made using UV- and salt-resistant Wood Without Worry aluminium woodgrain battens in Beach Oak Grey, paired with Woodland Grey frames. Wood Without Worry is a range of hollow-extrusion woodgrain aluminium battens, insulated with a textured powdercoat that tends to feel cooler to the touch than other materials.
The grey palette of the park furniture complements the bright colours of the play elements.
“The furniture selection importantly needed to be suitable for the coastal location of the site,” said Zac Fried, senior landscape architect with Emerge Associates.
“Aluminium battens with a woodgrain ‘Beach Oak’ finish were selected; these also matched materials used elsewhere on the site and tied into the theme of the foreshore public open space.”
According to Fried, the park was extremely popular all year round, but particularly in summer, which meant the furniture needed to be hardwearing and low maintenance.
“The furniture caters for large groups of users of the space at the same time. The oversized shelters have multiple picnic settings underneath for larger communal events. The picnic settings were also importantly selected to be DDA compliant ensuring accessibility for all abilities,” he said.
The park also features a sheltered bike station, complete with an air pump for tyres and spiral hoop bicycle parking for cyclists to take a break.
An Arqua fountain, powdercoated in Night Sky, provides fresh drinking water on tap for visitors.
