A

SENSE OF PLACE
BENCH DESIGN

Name: CAO ZHUOJUN

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Mar9n Place, Customs House and Chiey Square are the three sites that I chose as examples of public space in Sydney CBD. Every day, these sites aNract workers and visitors as they cross the city or sit down and enjoy lunch in the sun. Mar9n Place is surrounded by many heritage buildings and features water fountain, Cenotaph, entertainment area and railway access. It is oSen crowded with oce workers at lunch9me and tourists. Customs House is on the doorstep of business professionals during the week and families visi9ng the harbour on weekends and is easily accessible by a variety of transporta9on op9ons. Chiey Square is a focus for the city's nancial services and legal communi9es as well. ASer visi9ng these sites, it was found that the bench frames are liNered with cigareNe buNs, while these corners are oSen ignored by cleaners. As a result, buNs are piled up, which makes people unwilling to sit on those seats and birds around there may mistake them for food. So my design solu9on is a bench that consists of 33 independent seat units with the same ergonomic shape and a tube xing them together. As a result, no bench frame could be used to liNer buNs, which can be helpful to keep the seats clean and bring about smokers behavioral change. The gaps are made in between seat units to prevent water from ponding on the seat aSer raining and save material. In addi9on, the benches in those sites are all back-to-back, which make people in groups hard to communicate. In my design, the bench seats are put in the 3 dierent congura9ons, which make it can be used for many dierent purposes by dierent people, like singles, people in groups and couples, and it can create a comfortable and useable public environment where users can rest, socialize, or people-watch. As a result, these features can make contribu9ons on renewing public spaces and crea9ng an important sense of place. The material used for the seat units are recycled HDPE plas9c panel. It is manufactured from recycled plas9c waste in HDPE and can itself be recycled. In addi9on, it was found in those sites that the benches are damaged by bird droppings and gra9. This material is gra9 resistant, easy to clean and repair, weather tolerant and strong yet lightweight, which can eec9vely solve the problem and save money on maintenance. Leg and tube are made of stainless steel. The shape of tube and the hole on seat unit are complementary to each other, so they can be easily joint together and make the installa9on more ecient.