London Design Festival has collaborated with the British furniture and lighting producer Established & Sons to create a series of one-off benches by ten different designers. Each bench is made with a different material and exhibited in the gardens at the Victoria and Albert Museum for the duration of the ten-day festival. The Bench Years aims to free designers from the usual constraints of designing urban furniture, for example, the over-cautious regulations for safety and vandalism. Instead, the group of ten benches, celebrating the ten years of the Design Festival, challenges the assumptions of the humble street bench. Here, you certainly won’t see a standard wooden bench with arm and back rests.
Bench of Plates by AL_A
London-based Amanda Levete Architects, collaborating with Ceramics Cumella have created a bench inspired by the V&A’s extensive collection of ceramics. The glazes create a spectrum of earthy colours that reference the domestic crockery that has served dinner tables for years. The individually hand-made plates slide together and stack one on top of each other to create a sweeping curve.
A-Bench Metal by Felix de Pass
An original design from 2011, for a similar bench by Felix de Pass for Established & Sons, has been updated for the Festival. Simply made from folding sheet metal, the bench has punched holes to allow water to drain and an angled seat to create a comfortable place to sit.
Tube by Alexander Taylor
This stainless steel tubed bench is inspired by felled woodland logs, though finished with a simple, mirror polishing finish to leave the material in its most natural, reflective state.
Pier by Konstantin Grcic
German designer Konstantin Grcic collaborated with leading producer of glass mosaics, Bisazza to create a simply formed bench, which shows-off the small pieces of red, cream and grey glass.
Western Facade by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby
This was one of my favourites, by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. Western Facade appears to be a rather simple monolithic block of marble, however, the random apertures refer to the V&A’s Exhibition Road facade which is marked by shrapnel damage from the Second World War. The holes actually run through the whole length and width of the marble, never intersecting, but making the material more translucent.
Pe de Porco (Pig Foot) by Fernando Brizio
As you can probably notice, this bench takes the form of a pig’s trotter. Portuguese designer Fernando Brizio collaborated with Amorim to create a bench made of cork oak from forests where black pigs forage for acorns.
Infinity Bench by Martino Gamper
Italian designer has created a hard-wearing bench celebrating the different colours and textures of hardwood. With the support of the American Hardwood Export Council, Gamper created a thermally modified hardwood for durability and stability
Images my own
