{"id":587,"date":"2025-09-19T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/?p=587"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:50:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:50:28","slug":"school-pupils-design-modular-public-seating-for-kings-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/19\/school-pupils-design-modular-public-seating-for-kings-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"School pupils design modular public seating for King's Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"
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London designers, including Attua Aparicio<\/a>, James Shaw<\/a> and Studio Furthermore<\/a>, have worked with local teenagers to develop a public bench<\/a> for Camden council as part of a project by social enterprise Store that was unveiled at the London Design Festival<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The initiative, titled This Bench Has Legs, saw designers work with north Londond state school students aged 14 to 18 to create a public seating prototype that could be used in the King’s Cross area.<\/p>\n

\"Metal
London designers worked with local students to create a bench<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Responding to a brief set by developer Argent<\/a>, which was responsible for the regeneration of the King’s Cross<\/a> district, Store<\/a> set out to create a modular seating system that utilises locally sourced waste materials.<\/p>\n

Aparicio, who is involved in running Store’s summer schools and after-school clubs, told Dezeen that the design and choice of manufacturing process were based on the objective of creating an affordable, scalable solution.<\/p>\n

\"Man
The design features irregular hexagonal legs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Our ambition of having the bench implemented by the council meant that it had to be cost-effective,” she explained. “For that reason, we focused on creating a bench that was industrially producible but also modular and playful.”<\/p>\n

Over the course of four separate after-school clubs, students explored modularity with Livia Lauber<\/a>, glass with Dawn Bendick<\/a>, plastics with James Shaw<\/a> and aluminium with Marina Dragomirova of Studio Furthermore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Two
The legs can be used to join multiple benches together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The final bench was created during a summer school run by Aparicio and Oscar Lessing \u2013 the duo behind Silo Studio<\/a> \u2013 where students worked alongside local producers to realise the bench’s components.<\/p>\n

The design’s most characteristic component is its irregular hexagonal legs, which are cast using recycled aluminium by Maybrey Reliance<\/a>, a foundry based in Aylesford, Kent.<\/p>\n

The expense involved with mould-making meant that only one shape could be created. A six-sided form was chosen as it allows the height of the seat to be altered by rotating the legs.<\/p>\n