streeeeeet bench by vincent wittenberg + guy königstein

streeeeeet bench by vincent wittenberg + guy königstein

eindhoven-based designers vincent wittenberg and guy königstein have developed a series of alternative street infrastructure for common urban spaces.

the street usually refers to the pavements, roads and traffic islands – areas which have the potential to offer new design opportunities. following this perception, one can initiate collaborative and participative urban processes, from which both the municipality and the residents profit, eventually creating a more interesting and vivid street.

the bench is made up of individual chairs which can be released and used separately by inserting a five shekel coin

for their project entitled ‘streeeeeet’, the duo came up with a series of interventions realized in bat-yam, israel, one observation they made of the residents’ habits was use of private chairs in public spaces. although the arcades in front of the shops might be publicly used within the street, the area officially belongs to the shops. every morning the shop keepers place a chair in front of their stores and use it throughout the day. wittenberg and königstein have proposed to the municipality to replace existing public benches with an option that consists of individual seats. working on a system similar to that of paying to use a shopping cart at the grocery store, here, the bench itself is a docking station. using a five shekel coin, one can release a seat and place it in a different spot. the deposit is returned when one brings the seat back.

a chair being used individually

releasing the chairs

detail

the bench in use

observations from bat-yam

observations from bat-yam

observations from bat-yam