SpaceDraft Powers Sculpture by the Sea
Overview
Sculpture by the Sea is one of Australia’s largest free public art events — a bi-coastal tradition that transforms Perth’s Cottesloe Beach and Sydney’s Bondi Beach into open-air galleries.
After a year without the Cottesloe edition in 2025 due to funding shortfalls, organisers were under pressure to return bigger and better in 2026.
But the operation is complex. Cottesloe Beach remains fully open to the public during the exhibition — beach goers, surf lifesavers, local cafés and sunset crowds share the space with crane lifts, heavy vehicle deliveries along Marine Parade, temporary fencing and peak pedestrian movement.
Coordinating artists, contractors, volunteers and organisers across this live coastal environment — meant inefficiencies had to be improved.
Challenges
Key operational pain points included:
WHS inductions previously managed via face to face briefings, manual paper forms, physical signatures, filing and storage — time consuming, repetitive and prone to errors
Fragmented briefing documents and static PDFs that became outdated the moment conditions changed
Miscommunication between stakeholders without a shared visual reference
Limited wheelchair-accessible viewing — previously just two days of dedicated access at Cottesloe
No unified system for managing installation sequencing, safety buffers, emergency access and visitor flow across bump-in and bump-out
Solutions
SpaceDraft was appointed Official Partner of Sculptures by the Sea for 2026, embedding its live visual planning platform across both the Cottesloe (March) and Bondi (October) exhibitions.
Rather than working from static plans, all teams — from crane operators to volunteers — now operate within a single, smartphone-accessible environment that reflects how the site changes over space and time.
A critical component was the transformation of the WHS induction process. Paper forms and physical sign-off were replaced with four digital compliance forms, featuring dual-signature capability, instant submission and zero paperwork. Artists and crew completed inductions remotely via QR code — meaning no filing, no chasing, no storage.
SpaceDraft’s technology was deployed across four key functions:
Artist inductions and installation sequencing for bump in and bump out
Live site navigation and operational mapping
Accessibility and inclusion journey planning
With 25 QR codes printed on metal plates and placed throughout the Cottesloe exhibition, SpaceDraft replaced static, word heavy PDFs with a shared, interactive and animated live site reference for stakeholders.
Results
The 2026 return of Sculptures by the Sea to Cottesloe Beach marked a significant step forward — not just in operational efficiency, but in WHS compliance putting the event in favour with local councils.
WHS Induction Results (01 Feb – 08 Apr 2026):
201 total submissions recorded across all 4 compliance forms — zero fails
WHS Induction Checklist: 54 submissions, 100% pass rate
Fatigue Management, Risk Management and Workplace Participants Protocol: 147 combined submissions, 98 passes, zero fails
35–45 hours of administration time saved — equivalent to a full week of work for the Exhibition Coordinator. At a rate of $45 per hour, that’s a direct saving of $2,025.
Accessibility & Operations:
Wheelchair-accessible viewing days expanded from 2 to 8 — through proactive visual journey mapping
Drop-off zones, rubber-mat viewing corridors on sand, volunteer support and real-time navigation made accessibility easy to follow
200,000+ visitors to Cottesloe supported by safer, more clearly coordinated operational systems
Miscommunication between contractors and stakeholders significantly reduced through a unified visual environment
What's Next
The bi-coastal partnership doesn’t stop at Cottesloe. The same SpaceDraft digital planning model will be deployed for the Bondi exhibition in October 2026, where more than 450,000 visitors are expected across one of Sydney’s most iconic stretches of coastline.
This expansion demonstrates how the platform scales seamlessly across different geographic (space) and operational (time) contexts.
SpaceDraft’s growing role in complex public environments signals a broader shift in how major outdoor events plan, brief and deliver experiences — where clarity, safety and community access must work together at scale.
