Eco Bench

Status- Completed, 2012

Location- Aravalli Bio Diversity Park

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The winning entry to Eco Bench Competition for the Aravalli Bio Diversity Park. An evolution in bench design that clearly moves away from the accepted notions of a bench and elevates it to art (almost), which would be put to at the vast 600+ acre Aravalli Bio Diversity park.

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Our attempt with this design project was to push the accepted and now outlived idea of a park bench and re-imagine it in the context of an ecologically sensitive space, and local context. Drawing on design cues that understood that sitting does not always have to be with feet down and hands by your side, especially in an indian context and also that a park so vast would afford views in 360 degree at any point, the design takes a stance that moves it away from the accepted notion of a bench.

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And it clearly works – attracting kids and adults alike- to look , feel , touch, see and then sit only to discover the flexibility (of variation of use that) has been carefully created, unfold. You can sit on it cross legged, or astride like on a log and play chess, or put your feet up an lie back, and even lean against it, and use the small worktop that rises conveniently from the headboard, to just the right height for your laptop or baby.

 

Material choices and systems for assembly had a large part to play in the design. The seating is to be made from Recycled Plastic Lumbar, (from recycled terapak), and cast concrete and waste stone and industrial material for infill also designed to be vandal proof. The Eco Bench has been designed as a component assembly to remove any chemical activity at site. The entire bench can be assembled from a kit of parts, a responsible way to build in an ecologically sensitive environment.