Proper placement of benches in public space?

[Trace One]

So in all our public transportation spaces, airports, train stations, bus stations…the common idiom is to  place quads of the plastic seating in the middle of the space..sometimes (Penn Station, NY) that add plastic see-through half walls, to try to define the space..

 

GACK!!! People can creep up on you, you are in odd juxtapostions with strangers..

This middle of the room habit for public spaces  bad placement..In this particular public space, we discussed placing the benches near the bathrooms.  The designer felt that this would be ‘creepy.’ ..I disagree. That is where you want to be, when grandma or the kids has to go, that is why you are there anyway..And one should have one’s back to the wall, watching the flow of ambiant traffic, while you rest…

 

And then, as I said, we had one designer who refused to put ANY benches in the public space – fear of vandalism, plus a general internal hatred of the little cute wooden bench inthe landscape with flowers, often requested for small residential design spaces ..I don’t hate those things, like this guy did..

 

I go with A.E.Bye’s dictum – a park is designed with a bench stamp and a tree stamp..You cannot have enough benches..

 

But NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!

[Les Ballard]

Oh dear! Does no-one read my stuff? Put in temporary benches where you can to grow fenced off living ones nearby and the same with shelters.

When you buy friies and eat them walking down the street you want a bin in view when you finish. So you eat fries walking down the street and see where you are when you are finished. With benches folk want privacy (perceived), beauty, a bin again, some comfort, even a separate ashtray, sometimes called a potted plant in thoughtless schemes. (Like fire extinguishers can be the most expensive door stops in the world.) What are used are cold, pile inducing, wet cos the shelters suck, slatted metal street detritus examples that fit only in renderings with beautiful people and not many of them.

I bought an armchair once for the diner in my rooms. It had been damp where it was outside the furniture shop as it was an old chair someone had swapped for new. Beautiful pale lilac fungi sprouted from the wings that I couldn’t find in a book so once they wilted I cleaned the chair again with vinegar. After a couple of years the chair was relegated to the back alley where the Honda biker shop staff used it to smoke on when it wasn’t raining. Recently, I saw it again at the end of the alley in a kids den taking pride of place beneath a roof of pallet boards and cartons. Will it never go to the tip? Well our benches are instantly undesirable. They would be on a lorry in seconds if detached. There is nothing nice about them like chainsaw art of a tree stump, or select and civilised like a cheap wrought iron bench that only needs bolting down and painting occasionally. Nothing romantic or evocative like a simple limited garden swing or a single ply chair so famous for the Christine Keeler pose. Even gaudy carbon fibre toadstools keepkids quieter than a bum aching steel bar. If authorities are frightened that nice benches will be slept on by winos, or drunken office workers, leave the benches and service the community better. Oh, and where there is seating in the dry and out of the wind, Gods forbid, someone should wash and polish it every day or so, not just drive round on a sweeping machine with an mp3 implanted and an expression of stupid vacation. Sorry, rant over.

The photo is of a local thief using a commemorative park bench, The scheme is dear, many times the cost of a real bench to you and only guarantees exhibition for several years but, is so oversubscribed in nice areas and not so nice, it has become a boondoggle for authorities.

Luv n Lite and happy year of the tiger

Les Ballard – who has more cognac than coffee in his mug today

[Trace One]

I like your ‘theif’ Les! That is enough with the cognac for today!
🙂
Unless of course it is just a cognac sort of day!

[Les Ballard]

Jeepers, I remember this post! I can’t have had that much cognac lol.

[Author]

Posts