Description
This guide has been developed to help procurers better understand the complexities of Furniture selection beyond the aesthetic curation. Furniture must be fit for purpose, meet compliance regulations, and satisfy strength and durability requirements. In this context itis considered to be ‘equipment’ and often part of the furniture, fit out and equipment portion of major projects. Any selection and specification of a product comes with associated risk.
Furniture has a unique place within the specification and procurement ecosystem. Furniture holds significant importance in how buildings look, feel and are operated. From a design perspective furniture also is where the end user interacts most intimately with the built environment, at times literally sitting or lying upon and within the designed space.
As Furniture is typically loose and not fixed into the building, it can either be considered the last responsibility of the procurer, or the first responsibility of the client upon handover. This unique edge position within the specification process creates a diversity of approaches that depend upon project typologies, client types and procurement models. Furniture specification is additionally complex.
There are a multitude of Australian Standards for Furniture that exist to ensure the safety and interests of the public are protected.
In terms of the Scope of this Guide wherever Furniture is listed, Mattresses specified for commercial and public environments are considered as a related subset. As such the Guide lists recommendations for consideration when selecting Mattresses. This guide will help specifiers and procurers manage and potentially reduce that risk by better understanding the regulatory framework and the unique complexities of the Furniture supply sector.
