The Park ‘N’ Seat Bench is a student project designed and built by Obayanju Oluwapelumi as part of his summer semester 2017 academic courses for the Masters Architecture programme at the Dessau International Architecture Graduate School Germany.
He recently shared his process, sketches and images with us, highlighting the concept of his design as well as the cost, materials and fabrication.
DESIGNER’S DESCRIPTION
The Park ‘n’ Seat bench is a parametric design based on the sectioning principle of parametric designing and conceptualized from the means of merging bike stand and seating together in a public space (parks, street, school etc.) hence the derivative of the PARK n SEAT name of the design.
It’s comprised of 65 wooden sections which are digitally fabricated with CNC Milling machine, and these section pieces are connected together with bolts and nuts to form the product.
As a bench its maximum seating capacity is 5 person at once as it accommodates 5 bicycles for the bike stand, hence serving as a utility street furniture which is scalable to varying dimension and can be replicated in the urban space for use as seating and parking.
PROJECT CONCEPT/INSPIRATION / DESIGN
As a biomimicry design, the design form is inspired from seashell –cowrie, this which is clearly visible in the plan form. The grooves lines on the seashell follow the sectioning pattern of parametric design hence optimizing it for the bike stand slots, and the other part of its surface for the seating part of the bench
Functionally, the design concept is the merging of two functions together into once piece, seating and bike parking, thus resulting in one part of the bench as a bench and the other side as bike stand which takes 5 bikes at once.
The design is generated using Rhino and Grasshopper.
APPROACH VIEW: showing the bench part and the connection of the section pieces
REAR VIEW: showing the bike stand part and the connection of the section pieces with bolt
TYPICAL SIDE VIEW: showing the seating part (bench) and the bike stand
MATERIALS
Affordability, durability and stability under moist weather condition makes the main factor in the choice of material for the fabrication of the bench as its design for outdoor use though suitable for indoor use as well, hence the choice of Siebdruckplatte (Plywood) which suites the purpose.
Siebdruckplatte (plywood):15mm X1250mm X 2500mm
Bolts: 12mm X 2000mm and 12mm X1000mm
M12 Nuts and Washers
FABRICATION
Each section piece are digitally fabricated with CNC milling machine ,as the Siebdruckplatte (plywood) boards were feed into the machine for cutting of each piece of the section parts.
STRUCTURAL-Bolt and Nut
The 65 CNC milled pieces section of the bench are connected together with M12 bolts and nuts, with M13 wood stacking pieces in between each section piece for stability and balance
ASSEMBLY / FINAL PRODUCT
PROJECT OUTLINE
- LOCATION: BUILDING 8, Bauhaustrasse 5, Dessau International Architecture Graduate School (DIA)
- SCHOOL: Dessau International Architecture Graduate School, Germany.
- COURSE: CADLOGIC: Digital Modelling and Advanced Fabrication
- TUTOR: Karim Soliman
- YEAR: Summer Semester 2017
- PROJECT SPONSOR: Deanery, Hoschule Anhalt, Germany
- COST: 1708.92 EUR (Materials, CNC Milling and Transportation)
- DESIGNED BY: Obayanju Oluwapelumi
- SOFTWARES: Grasshopper, Rhino and AutoCAD
