further design sketches

I've continued to sketch possible bench configurations that encourage social space for resting and visiting... I'd also like them to be 'useful' and meet the typical needs associated with public furniture, so I've begun to incorporate lighting, bicycle storage and planting containers...

further studies have been interrupted by other exciting projects, to be chronicled soon! 

Some addictions are good, right?

The internet is often a lost cause for me, a black hole, with little to offer. But as a reading-addict (some addicitions are good, right?)

just a few books borrowed from the library... that's not all of them... 

books alone are not enough. I must consume the written word and the image / object approximately 24 / 7... And this week, somehow, I hit the jackpot! LOTS of great writing out there to enjoy:

An incredible vote for humility and effectivity as opposed to stardom. 

Inspiring portraits of folks and their projects when rethinking potential blighting properties or spaces becomes a community necessity.

I get to listen to Rick all the time. And yet this is the kind of writing that reminds you not only why you love architecture, but why you love your job of architecting, with great people, in a beautiful region. 

I normally don't enjoy the bitterness, cynicism or outright profession-deprecating sarcasm of Coffee With an Architect. I do think Jody makes some great points, but I wish - naively - that they didn't have to be made, let alone in such a negative way. Recently, however, the tone of the writing has changed and I deeply enjoyed reading.

Very thoughtful observations on a stage we are... almost... reaching ourselves. Though my canned - and cannily accurate - response is still that we don't own a home because if we did, I'd have to start knocking down walls, and there are other things more important to my time right now ;) 

I didn't meet this guy, but the guy who met him. I was at an Arts Council opening and met a gentleman who was walking from Rhode Island to the Great Lakes. Yes, I wrote Walking. Not to mention that, the gentleman had just that day met a younger traveler, headed in the opposite direction. Who'd started out in California, headed up to Washington and then gone across the country. On foot. The blog of this younger man was recommended to me, and when I finally logged on, I was completely in love.

 

And with simple and pure joy, I found this, which reminded me of the time I accidentally broke into Peter Zumthor's Studio Office while traveling alone in Chur... 

 

Look here for one of the many ways I immersed myself in his work - and the wonder of Switzerland - during that week back in the summer of 2007... and happy reading to you all!

public furniture as social space

These benches were not only a unique interpretation of the way's in which one uses - or occupies - a bench, they were also a clear study in pushing the limits of the material's capability. And in closely considering the structural conditions of how a bench meets the ground, supports a body, and stays level.

I've been interested ever since in the social space and level of comfort that can be created by various bench configurations, and have been exploring through sketching:

I've continued to increase the frequency - and exploratory content - of my sketches over the past two months. I'll be using that technique to develop a new bench design I'd like to see in the small downtowns we work in so frequently at In. Site: Architecture. The design will be based on these benches and on the goal of creating comfortable, usable social space via public furniture.