Winning benches of the Pews and Perches open call take over London’s Royal Docks

Small things make a big difference. Similarly, the impact of small spaces add to the quality of living in urban cities. Public spaces particularly are catalysts to making or breaking this continuum. The Pews and Perches design competition, hosted by the London Festival of Architecture in collaboration with the Royal Docks Team, has placed four winning furniture pieces within four different locations of the East London waterfront area, creating new dialogues of engagement between people, object, and the place. The annual open call, now in its fourth edition, invites students, recent graduates and emerging studios "to deliver playful and creative bench proposals that celebrate and transform the Royal Docks as a place to sit, rest and play." The brief ensues creation of a small scale intervention in the public realm that responds to the LFA theme each year. This edition, the theme being 'In common' required each entry to answer the question—'how do we make the most of what we have in common–and explore things we don’t?"

Four winning designs this year put a spotlight on how furniture in the post-industrial landscape of the Royal Docks could speak of the stories of the past while resonating with the present times. From refreshing material palettes and forms to circular and economic designs, a particular focus is also given to new, intuitive vocabularies of engagement with urban furniture. 

STIR interacts with the winning teams to know more about their designs.

Round the Neighbourood

Design: Nicolos Makatsaria and Jericho Cabalan, UTC College

Inviting the users to go around the neighbourhood, this bench—circular both in its form and intent—reimagines the materiality of works from last year’s competition. Each bench is a combination of two to three small seating components clustered together around a central revolving seat. The encompassing form is “designed to be of different heights, sizes and colours representing people from different walks of life who will enjoy our bench,” says educator Andrew Tan who closely worked with Makatsaria and Cabalan to develop the furniture series, currently being showcased at the UTC College campus on the Royal Docks.

"In order for our design to reflect the vibrancy and uniqueness of our community, we selected specific colours for the seats of the bench to mirror the surrounding architecture elements, for example the blue seats link to the factories across the water and the yellow matches the structural pillars of our college. By making these subtle design decisions, we hope to achieve a sense of cohesiveness and reveal the genius loci of the location,” Tan tells STIR. The materiality involves the use of oriented strand board (a kind of engineered wood) and metallic pipes taken from last year’s work, Cautionary Benchmark. “The OSB was picked as it is sustainable, being made of wood scrap, minimising wastage and delivering a unique surface texture. This along with reusing the scaffolding helped us convey our message to reuse, recycle and reduce carbon footprint,” adds Tan.

Together we Hold

Design: Akmaral Khassen

Legs of four figurative women create a fluid ensemble of a seating by the London-based artist. Each leg painted a distinct colour, this boldly colourful MDF bench “highlights the unity amongst women who stand together to fight for their body rights,” as per Khassen. “I envisioned the bench as a moment,” the artist tells STIR, adding that “pedestrians passing by would notice this out of place object with its bold colours and curvy shapes, and potentially wonder why there is a figurative human form. The bench carries its own meaning for me as a designer but I see people interpreting it in their own way after that moment of interaction and it is beautiful.” Placed in a serene spot of the Lyle Park, the bench is surrounded by low lying trees and it overlooks the Thames. For Khassen, the process of making the bench involved the help of a local fabricator whose role was beyond only realising the project physically. “I was very lucky with the fabricator who was advising on design, efficiency, and cost saving throughout the process. […] Using MDF enabled us to achieve the most important feature of the bench—high gloss colour paint coat,” relays the artist. The bench design, as per her, also puts a spotlight on the growing unsafe experiences of women in London’s parks. Solidifying the power of collective rebellion of women, the work hopes to make these public spaces, safe and attractive. 

Float

Design: Akasaki Vanhuyse

A project by Japanese architect Kenta Akasaki and French architect Astrid Vanhuyse, the bench features a soft rounded geometry sculpted in a meticulous layering of deadstock bricks. The design take cues from the industrial heritage of Royal Albert Wharf waterfront where the furniture is kept—"from the curved quayside, the presence of various maritime objects with round and playful forms, as well as the historical pumping station made from bricks,” says the design team of the London-based studio. Use of traditional handmade clay bricks in a modular and stackable arrangement underpins the designers’ intent to avoid the straightforward assembly method of the local construction.

Contrast and harmony go together in the making of Float. Speaking of how this was achieved, the design team explains, “The heavy and solid materiality creates an intriguing contrast with the light and soft feel of the design. The way bricks are pre-cut with specific angles and dimensions became the core of the making process. It required an extremely precise cutting of the 360 bricks into 13 types before being layered by skilled bricklayers.” The rounded and highly tactile form of the bench invites a certain freedom for people to access the furniture as they like. “People can also lie down which creates an experience of feeling as though they are floating on the water. […] The natural flow created around the bench emphasised by the spiral brickwork promotes new interactions and connections between people,” adds Akasaki Vanhuyse.

Chit Chat Chair

Design: Studio Groove

An s-shaped chair emulating the form of two barrels fastened together is designed to ‘hug its sitters’ and pulling them in an unexpectedly intimate composition. Composed of timber battens and steel flatbar, the furniture is kept on the quayside of the Floating Garden in East London. The materiality, as per Studio Groove, was of course drawn from the post-industrial landscape of the context, particularly imagery of the weathered timber and rusting steel of historic ships. “But the key factor for working with such well-known materials is just that: they are well-known,” relays the design team. Timber, they share, ensues a certain attraction for everyone, "almost an instinctive affinity" making it a quintessential choice for the bench. “Both strip timber and steel flatbar are incredibly workable,” the designers tell STIR. “Here they form two typical seats in an atypical bench with the creation of a sinuous timber ribbon skewered by a steel beam. Such a strong concept does not want to be upstaged by avante-garde materials.”

The idea of the bench mirroring the form of two barrels resounds the lost bustle of London’s port since the ships and dockers set sail. The design essentially looks back to the vigour of the site from late 19^th century when Royal Docks was a thriving hub of stevedores and longshoremen engaged in unloading ships, sorting quayside goods whilst immersed in personal stories and immersive chats. “The Chit Chat Chair,” Studio Groove tells STIR, “hopes to inspire some of that historic bustle through the excitement of spontaneous conversation.”

The winning installations of the Pews and Perches competition will remain on their respective sites for public viewing till June 15, 2023.