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Bollards are probably the street furniture element that interests designers the least. Their function is usually not to decorate the city, but to regulate traffic: both drivers and pedestrians or cyclists are meant to be forced into their respective zones and kept there.

The potential for conflict is inevitable, and consequently, bollards are usually heavy and robust. They are often decorated with chains, thus becoming barriers.

Historically, they also served to protect the entrances to a courtyard from the wheels of carts. Occasionally, one can find examples where the banal lowest stone in a corner has become a small design object.

A popular material for bollards is natural stone. It is heavy, does not require much of an underground foundation and is also durable.

However, there are also bollards designed for planting and therefore have a small hook on top.

During the industrial era, cast iron was a fashionable material. The bollards of that era took the form of slender columns, some with an antique look. Recently, they have also been made of cast aluminum with an iron core.

Back to the stones. Spheres that line a street are elegant; in some places, you can even find small designer objects along the roadside.

In Milan, we came across bollards designed entirely in keeping with the city’s self-image as a center of elegance and fashionable beauty: They no longer block off traffic but rather organize passageways within stone elements that serve as barriers. Although they are still made of granite, they are no longer solid. They bear a metal plate with a city map on top of the stone bowls.

Smart uses are conceivable, even for philosophers.

Finally, we have often wondered whether bollards and cell phones can coexist peacefully—we have not heard of any real problems yet.