Paul Cocksedge’s installation at LDF 19 invites visitors to Please Be Seated

The London Design Festival 2019 (LDF19) returns with its 17th edition this year, marking city-wide celebration of design and all things creative at the Design Museum, London. The museum will yet again host a series of specially commissioned projects by internationally celebrated designers to promote London's design excellence.

On this occasion, an extraordinary installation that is expected to draw huge crowd is the Landmark Project by British designer Paul Cocksedge. Commissioned by Broadgate, it is set to transform Finsbury Avenue Square in London at the festival this year. Aptly named Please Be Seated, the installation unfurls in an undulating arrangement, its curves designed to provide spaces to sit on and walk under.

This urban furniture has a massive scale, yet leaves the square totally visible, ingeniously animating the space it is set within. The structure’s centre is rendered in a light, tan colour, and transitions towards a darker, more neutral shade of wooden brown towards the outer rings. The wavy assembly designates interweaving areas, where one can sit on the lower bends, and walk through, or else stand underneath the elevated curves. Please Be Seated encourages interaction and responds to the ‘rhythm of the community’ that circulates in Broadgate, further enhancing London’s largest pedestrian-ised neighbourhood.

Every single aspect of the installation is tailored to its environment as well as the function it serves. The curves raise up to create backrests and places to sit, as well as space for people to walk under, or pause and find some shade. It walks the line between a craft object and a design solution. It occupies the square without blocking it. – Paul Cocksedge

Cocksedge has collaborated with Essex-based high end interiors company White & White in order to re-use and re-imagine the wood being used to build the installation that has been built from recycled scaffolding planks.

Broadgate’s The Space will also host an exhibition showcasing Cocksedge’s work, including the process of Please Be Seated, from start to finish. He will also be in conversation with a panel of experts, discussing meaningful design for the public realm, as part of the Shoreditch Design Triangle’s Design Night, a cultural event promoting its activities during the London Design Festival.

The London Design Festival is open from September 14-22, 2019, and Please Be Seated would be on display until October 11, 2019.

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