Tag Archives: Bench

3D technologies transformed plastic waste into city benches to beautify concrete barriers

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USE is an experimental furniture piece built from plastic waste for the small town of Lucca to operate as a second skin for New Jersey concrete barriers as well as a city bench.

R3direct uses innovative 3D technologies to produce a collection of different items, like furniture and public infrastructure, from waste. Currently, 55% of the plastic coming from urban waste is destined for thermo-valorization or dumped in landfills. R3direct gathers plastic waste from that portion of the main supply to use for their 3D-printed products.

Designer: R3direct & Giulia del Grande

Using large-format 3D printers, R3direct is dedicated to high commercial value applications like sculptures, functional prototypes, and public or private furniture objects. Their latest experimental furniture piece is dubbed USE, which stands for ‘Urban Safety Every day.’ USE primarily functions as a ‘second skin’ for New Jersey barriers and takes the shape of a city bench for residents and tourists to enjoy.

Made from post-consumer plastics, R3direct remains committed to printing durable and bespoke objects for private and public purposes. Using innovative 3D and parametric technologies, “The recycled plastic necessary for the realization of USE,” the R3direct team explains, “comes entirely from the recycling of polylaminate beverage cartons carried out by the company Lucart, [a] world leader in the production of paper and tissue.”

Dotting the streets of the small city of Lucca, while Lucart carried out the recycling and processing of the plastic, R3direct collected the plastic waste from the re-use of about 3,300 TetraPak® cartons. The final compositional makeup of USE is 75% of FiberPack®, a material obtained from recycled cellulose fibers used in beverage cartons, and the remaining 25% is made of polyethylene and aluminum, two components used as raw, secondary materials to produce the module.

Working closely with Giulia del Grande, the USE project originates from the designer’s thesis, which explores, “the issue linked to the design of spaces to prevent the sense of fear in people who live in cities.” Calming the chaos and busy nature of cities, public furniture like benches and water fountains are incorporated into the fabric of the city to function as aesthetically pleasing home bases for urban residents and tourists.

Speaking to this, the team at R3direct notes, “Urban furniture intends to transform the concrete barriers commonly used during events or in a fixed manner to protect strategic places in the city, making them aesthetically pleasing and equipping them with various functions useful to the citizen.”

The post 3D technologies transformed plastic waste into city benches to beautify concrete barriers first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sustainable, beautiful and comfy chairs that are made from stacks of factory offcut felt

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Surplus materials and offcuts are often reused to create art pieces that try to send a message. A new system, however, tries to turn what is considered waste into sustainable furniture for the living room that you can actually use and sit on.

The demand for clothing and furniture upholstery has probably gone up in the past few years, as more people become more attuned to well-designed products. That means more materials are used for production, which unfortunately also means more scraps are left on the cutting room floor, quite literally. While some of these materials are biodegradable or at least recyclable, one design firm is putting them to good use to create furniture that not only looks comfortable but artistically striking as well.

Designer: Stacklab

How many ways can you cut felt to turn it into something usable? Apparently, there are a lot of ways, especially if you let a machine decide. More than just a collection of designer furniture in the form of chairs, lounges, and benches, Stackabl is actually a new system that mixes machine precision with human creativity. In a nutshell, a specialized configurator software analyzes choices made by a user or a designer, like colors or dimensions, and selects high-quality felt offcuts that are then cut by robots for use in making furniture.

With limitations set by this configurator, six designers from Maison Gerard set out to create memorable designer furniture that looks almost wasteful if you didn’t know they were made from factory surplus and offcuts. Each designer expressed different ideas and influences, resulting in wildly different designs.

The Raki corner chair, for example, exudes a spirit of play and frivolity with its uneven form and non-uniform legs, while Dulces dining chair might remind you of the cake it’s named after, especially one with a sweet pink filling in the middle. The Madame chaise lounge’s predominantly red hue and sloping “shoulders” make it look exotic, while the Maxine bench’s mix of design influences is just as varied as its colors.

In addition to reusing materials that would normally be thrown away, Stackabl also puts the power and choice into the hands of regional manufacturers and designers. By keeping in touch with regional sources for these materials and allowing designers from that region to exercise their creativity, Stackabl tries to hit two birds with one stone in reducing carbon footprint while also enriching and empowering local economies.

The post Sustainable, beautiful and comfy chairs that are made from stacks of factory offcut felt first appeared on Yanko Design.

Polar Bear Bench: A Touch of the North Pole at Home

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Do you know what my garden has been missing? More gnomes. A person can never have too many garden gnomes, despite what my wife says, and she says the 20+ I already have are enough. Enough! There’s no such thing. But now all those gnomes are going to be running for their lives after I install this Polar Bear Bench created by Design Toscano and available on Amazon (affiliate link). Santa’s helper not included.

The Arctic Polar Bear is made from crushed stone bonded with resin and reinforced with fiberglass, with a realistic white finish. The bench measures 79″W x 36″D x 38″H, and weighs in at about 110 lbs. For reference, a full-grown male polar bear can weigh between 770 and 1,540 lbs, and I plan on being about the same after Thanksgiving dinner. Pass the pecan pie!

Now I just need to add some fake blood and a fallen reindeer and I’ve got the perfect addition to my outdoor Christmas display! Will it win first place in my neighborhood’s annual decorating contest? Probably not. But will it receive the most complaints? Most definitely. And that’s a better prize than any snow globe trophy could ever be.

[via DudeIWantThat]

This interactive bench design features movable wooden elements that mimic a kinetic wave!

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Surf Bench is an interactive bench designed for waiting room areas and to teach us about physics, is made from dozens of movable wooden and steel elements that mimic the flow of a kinetic wave.

When you’re stuck in a waiting room and left to your own devices, you make your own fun. Whether that means endlessly scrolling through Twitter, counting the tiles on the floor, or finding how far back you can lean in your chair, waiting rooms test your imagination until time moves faster or your name is called. With a single goal of making life around us (and waiting rooms) more pleasant, South German designer Kim André Lange created Surf Bench, a piece of interactive waiting room furniture that’s designed to bring people together, keep us busy, and teach us about physics in the meantime.

Designed to appear almost like a spinal cord, Surf Bench is comprised of moving wood and steel elements that change shape when interacted with to mimic the flow of a kinetic wave. When someone sits down on Surf Bench, their weight sends a ripple effect through the length of the bench, becoming a sort of life-size fidget spinner, one of those handheld devices uses to stave off looming anxiety. Sitting down on Surf Bench, users will notice the bench’s potential to occupy our senses, attention, and tactile urges.

When we’re stuck in waiting rooms, our hands land on whatever might provide some stimulation. Expressing this human tendency in conjunction with the design of Surf Bench, Kim André Lange notes, “The Surf Bench Project focuses on humans in public waiting areas – places where people experience time. By observing these places a strong visible emotion sticks out: nervosity…By analyzing present waiting areas one object is found in most of them: the waiting bench. An object without any characteristics helping us get through that nervous time in between.”

Sending kinetic waves down the entire length of Surf Bench not only keeps our minds occupied, but educates us on the physics behind it. Providing a tactile experience that also serves to educate the public on physics, Surf Bench will keep us entertained and might even help us forget we’re waiting for something in the first place.

Designer: Kim André Lange

This versatile furniture is an all-in-one training bench that balances your home and fitness routine!

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This intuitively designed all-inclusive weight training bench brings loads of useful workouts in a compact form factor – making it a practical solution for fitness addicts who like in small apartments.

Keeping your body in toned muscular shape is much harder than it seems – requiring consistency and a focused mindset over a long period of time. There are limitless options on the market for gym equipment that promises prime health, but only a handful actually motivate the user to get into action, each day without any lack-luster approach. It is advantageous if the home workout equipment you have is not too bulky and ultra-easy to use. After all, who wants to jostle around with complicated equipment which is frustrating as hell?

The TechnoGym Bench is your perfect alibi towards the goal of a healthy lifestyle without any unnecessary frills. This sleek and versatile bench holds all your workout tools and doubles as a workout leverage point for many different exercises. Thus, satisfying your need for a complete workout from the confines of your home if you are skeptical about heading to the gym amidst the ongoing pandemic. The functional training kit includes a myriad of over 200 body workouts. There are tools such as elastic bands, hexagon dumbbells, weighted knuckles and a training mat – in a compact footprint to cater to all your workout needs. Perfect for small apartments or urban spaces where space is at a premium.

The versatile workout bench comes with integrated wheels for ultra-portability and safe storage when not in use. The dedicated space to keep the dumbbells, elastic bands, weighted knuckles, and more accessories give this workout bench a tactical edge over other similar-looking equipment. Moreover, it comes with a library of around 30-minute workout videos to keep you on track to getting fitter by the day. So, whether you want to work out your core with the Jackknife technique, have a biceps curl and triceps kickback, or pump up the gluts and hamstrings – TechnoGym Bench is the one thing that you’ll need at home!

Designer: TechnoGym

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This grungy wooden bench with storage on the underside adds easy customization to your interiors!

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Whether it’s at the home bar or a restaurant, bar stools are great to furnish the space when variety is on your mind. At a restaurant, a bar stool allows more seating capacity and gives solo diners confined space to have a drink or two while indulging in a light conversation with the bartender. But when you have a bar chair at home, you’d want one that is more than a stagnant piece of furniture. The innovative design of the No.208 bar chair made that possible with its swappable design. The No.208 bar chair focuses on customization. The user can now replace the wooden seat or maybe change the color and material of the hanging leather basket under the seat. This leather basket doubled as storage and was the standout feature of this bar chair.

With the same concept in mind, but to share the seating with more than one person – whether placed indoors or installed in the public space – the No.215 bench chair is born. The bench is slightly lower in height since it deviates from the No.208’s bar chair image and its design – that appears like a bathtub – allows more than one person to sit next to each other. Therefore, the bench is much broader and comes with not one but two leather baskets attached to the underside. The primary intention of the baskets is to let people easily store their bags or cargo in it while occupying the chair without worrying about them getting dirty.

Here again, the concept is the same – the wooden seating plank is removable from the metal frame, just in case you want to replace it or introduce a new color. As it is for the bar stool, we can swap the leather baskets for a unique appearance. Share the No.215 bench and protect your bags from the dirty, sticky floor in whatever restaurant you are visiting. Presented in a choice of light and dark wood, the No.215 bench can be used independently or may be paired with the No.208 bar chair – whatever adds that special jazz to your space!

Designer: DesignThisIs

This spherical multipurpose seating solution swivels to face any side of the room!

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Transforming and multipurpose furniture is a trend that never dies. While the former offers customers the freedom in re-organizing home’s décor, the latter offers versatility and ensures the unit can adapt to any interior setting. Irrespective of your home size and the décor style, multipurpose seating like the Sphere Bench provides a practical and simpler way to serve you in various ways without taking up much space.

Designed to be placed in a central position in your living room, Sphere, with its flexibility and multipurpose approach, allows a user to manipulate its form, so it adapts to the activity – sitting, reclining – that the user intends. Presented in an egg-like form factor with a wooden base, Sphere Bench has a gray fabric upholstered seating area divided in half by a high backrest. The top seating portion spins around to allow the user to face any side of the room instantly.

What’s more interesting is that its wedge (in contrasting yellow) doubles as a pillow when you want to relax and recline on the Sphere. On removing the wedge, the vacant space can be used as a cubby to keep your belongings or maybe have your partner or pet jump up to fill the void and cuddle up right beside you. We can use the multipurpose bench for sitting or reclining on; the backrest design seems a little too upright, which could be uncomfortable for long sessions. But for occasional chit-chat in the room, the Sphere looks very stylish and modern.

Designer: Maggie Jo

 

A detailed Scandinavian-inspired bench design that adapts to life in the post-quarantine normal

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A lot of words have been added to our everyday vocabulary since last year – COVID, quarantine, social distancing, to name a few. So much have we isolated from people, that we have developed post-quarantine social anxiety. Simply put, social anxiety is the fear of social interactions, the kind that were even a part of our daily life before quarantine, where people have reported loss at how to behave with strangers and carry on social niceties. In some cases, the severity of the anxiety even manifests physically by causing sweating, palpitations or even panic attacks. As a way of re-entering society without the burden of interaction, the A-part bench was designed.

Cleverly named, the A-part bench (a play on apart) is a bench that allows you to regulate the distance you want to retain between yourself and the person sitting next to you. The bench is designed to literally help you bridge the distance, meet up a friend you have been dying to see while having them respect the distance you need so you can focus on the happiness of meeting up. The beauty of this design transcends social distancing. If you need a moment to sit in a park without having someone sit next to you, to get that isolation you crave, the A-part bench is your friend in need. The bench comes equipped with adjustable slats that you can move around to create seating of your choice. It can two people at the very edges or you can space out the slats to turn the entire bench into a co-shared experience, A-part gives you the power to choose and regulate your surroundings.

The versatile design allows it to function as an interior bench with its Scandinavian simplicity makes it easy to merge in with most aesthetics. A-part stands for two different things – to be a little distance away from one another and it also stands for being a part of something bigger than itself. In this way, the A-part bench is your way to feel comfortable with yourself in a crowd while still being a part of the crowd.

Designer: Loukas Chondros in collaboration with Oxymoro Design

These spaghetti-inspired benches embody fun, freedom and chaos!

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French-Argentine designer Pablo Reinoso created two series of benches with one goal in mind, that they should be free-flowing, fun and fluid. And Spaghetti and Garabatos are exactly that! Inspired by my favorite type of pasta, spaghetti, Reinoso adopted the neutral form of public benches for both the series and transformed them into playful works of art. Reinoso’s benches are quite universal, owing to their ability to merge with outdoor and indoor spaces. You could spot them in a park, or even a museum! They’re intriguingly versatile.

Designer: Pablo Reinoso for Carpenters Workshop Gallery

The Spaghetti benches start off as your usual beige-colored wooden benches, the ones you might find in your local park. However, the structures extend into curvy elongated branches, free of their functionality as benches, and soar towards the sky. The benches go beyond ordinary pieces of furniture, and in turn transform into expressions of freedom and exploration, or as Reinoso says an instance of “giving free rein to your whims”.

The Garabatos collection maintains the spirit of playfulness and liberty as well, however, Reinoso chose a matte black aesthetic for it. Twisting and spiraling, the Garbatos benches occupy a large amount of space and would be ideal for public places. They have an element of chaos to them, something that differentiates them from the Spaghetti benches, however, I must add that at certain angles they do look like crawling spiders! Yikes!

But beyond their spaghetti-and-spidery-like aesthetics, Reinoso’s benches truly are masterpieces. At first glance, they instill a feeling of wonder and amusement within you, and you can’t help but run over and grab a seat!

This perfect book-bench uses Corian in an inspiring way

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I remember having a bench quite similar to the ‘LAPS Bench’ that we see here. The sole purpose of my bench was to be a space where you could sit and take telephone calls. Back in the days – when mobile phones didn’t exist, dedicated benches with a table integrated, were used to place landlines and telephone directories. The 80’s children will resonate with this… but alas, we are in 2019. So the purpose of this ‘LAPS Bench’ is to hold books on the beautifully designed Corian table, which integrates with the bench.

Easy to maintain, Corian is a very versatile material and compliments the powder coated steel and wood construction of the bench. With the cushion upholstered in high quality fabric, enjoy reading your favorite magazine while you park yourself on it.

Designer: Aziz Belkharmoudi for matière première