Eccentric benches sit pretty during London Festival of Architecture
![City Blocks by Astrain Studio Architects.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UuVS57QXq6rCGKTa9XciQc-415-80.jpg)
The City of London – the Square Mile that contains St Paul’s, the Barbican, and the Gherkin amongst other architectural landmarks – is known as London’s financial district, yet recently, with the news of Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s concert hall and Foster’s tulip-shaped tourist tower, it seems the City is going in a new direction. Five new home-grown cultural attractions will be found in the City for the month of June – a series of eccentric benches designed by young Londoners with ambitions to add some delight to the daily life.
Partnering up with the London Festival of Architecture, the City of London Corporation and Cheapside Business Alliance commissioned five new benches for the Cheapside area – choosing the winning designs through a competition open to young architects and designers. The challenge was to design an ‘imaginative place for people to rest amidst the bustle of their city surroundings.’
The group of judges (including Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper* architecture editor) got together to sift through nearly 100 entries from a whole range of architecture and design students, recent graduates and emerging practices. What stood out to them this year – the competition is in its second iteration after its success last year – was bold colour, unconventional shapes, curves, hearts and dogs – all in all, the designs seem to be seeking to bring a little bit of happiness to the streets of London.
Benchtime by Anna Janiak Studio.
The five winners were then let loose with budget of £800 to create and manufacture their benches, and as a result, some very unexpected objects have descended on the city. One bench (Whippet Good) designed by Delve Architects with DragonSmoke Construction, is shaped like a giant, curled up whippet dog, plopped onto the pavement. Anna Janiak Studio’s bench is inspired by life-sized astronomical instruments and Armor Gutiérrez Rivas and Atelier La Juntana’s heart-shaped loveseat might just inspire some romance over a Pret sandwich or two over the next month.
The concept of play has been incited by all designers and architects involved: Astrain Studio Architects’ colourful design of interlocking geometric forms was inspired by children’s building blocks, and Sarah Emily Porter with James Trundle’s bench promises to shake up the daily commute with a rhythmic take on the shape lifted from the London tube map.
Correlated Journeys by Sarah Emily Porter with James Trundle
‘Together, the benches demonstrate not only the brilliance of London’s emerging architects, designers and artists, but also how small interventions can make such a difference to how people can experience and enjoy London’s streets and spaces,’ says Tamsie Thomson, Director of the London Festival of Architecture.
These benches are simple, creative, democratic urban tools that add to city life in so many ways. Instead of packing people into a lift to ship them up into a bulbous bar above the city, they are open to all to enjoy the city daily – designed by young Londoners with bright ideas, they are pops of colour and humour to uplift the urban fabric, and add to the social layers of life at street level.
Love Without Borders by Armor Gutiérrez Rivas, Atelier La Juntana
Whippet Good by Delve Architects with DragonSmoke Construction
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the London Festival of Architecture website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Tour the Natural History Museum’s new gardens, a Jurassic lark in London
The Natural History Museum in London has unveiled two new gardens, with resident dinosaurs, after a transformation led by architects Feilden Fowles
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Drama Republic moves into a colourful, handcrafted workspace in London
For the new creative HQ of production company Drama Republic, Emil Eve Architects remodels a warehouse into office space in London’s Holborn
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Hideaway House in London features timber panelling inspired by the New York hospitality scene
The elegantly refurbished Hideaway House by Studio McW in London features timber panelling inspired by Philip Johnson’s The Four Seasons Restaurant
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
An Uxbridge annexe by Bureau de Change is a design for effortless intergenerational living
Uxbridge Bower, a residential annexe in west London, is a contemporary addition offering both privacy and connection for the needs of a family
By Tianna Williams Published
-
‘Modern Buildings’ tours south-east London through a guide to post-war Blackheath and Greenwich
‘Modern Buildings: Blackheath and Greenwich’ is a detailed survey of a London borough’s rich trove of new modernist architecture
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Triangle House invites you to its inner world of colourful surprises
Triangle House by Artefact is a private home in Epsom, outside London, combining Caribbean style, colour and functionality
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Tour the refreshed Saint Andrew Holborn: an icon reveals its crisp new interior in London
DaeWha Kang reimagines Saint Andrew Holborn church through a sensitive architectural solution that blends tradition and modernity in London
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Suffolk house by Studio Bark pairs a fresh visual language with low-energy design
Suffolk house Water Farm is off-the-grid but defiantly on the map, a bold new object in the landscape with a strong visual impact and minimal carbon footprint
By Jonathan Bell Published