The Interactive Bench

The bench come alive with stories from and about the local neighborhood.

Sound may be invisible or only unconsciously perceived, but that doesn’t make it any less an architectural material than wood, glass, concrete, stone or light. With projects like the interactive bench, we ask; how can we use sound as a design parameter?

The interactive bench exists in many different shapes and is modular. It can also be put together with other benches of its kind. Different versions of the bench have already been put up in Danish cities like Copenhagen, Kolding, Billund, Vallensbæk and Struer and it is known to create social meeting points and connect the locals in a new way to the place they live.

The 3 later design iterations have been:

  1. In collaboration with Børnekulturhuset Sokkelundlille, Patrick Steptoe and BestTeller (funded by Realdania), focusing on how to strengthen the local ownership and identity.
  2. For and with the Design School and Kolding Municipality, focusing on connecting two different neighborhoods in the city.
  3. For and with Struer Municipality, focusing on co-creating and offering different experimental soundscapes to the citizens.