The Interactive Bench

  • ABOUT THE PROJECT

    The interactive bench started already 10 years ago, as a temporary project. Since then, it has been through a lot of different design iterations and now exists as a permanent urban furniture. Please contact us for details.

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.
The interactive bench
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When sitting on an interactive bench it comes to life through the soundscape from within the bench – for example with natural sounds (like birds singing), with personal stories of the lives of the people living in the area or with history about an area. The benches are equipped with touch-sensors that reacts on people sitting on it, and all depending on what time it is, the stories will be different. The sensible sensors react on different activity levels and motions of the people using it affects the tempo or character of the soundscape. The keynote changes, and thus you can create new and unique soundscapes just but standing up and sitting back down. Different number of people will also affect the soundscape. This means, the more people you are, the more imaginative and magnificent the soundscape will be.
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When installed, the bench can play back soundscapes referring to local places and environments, but in for example Struer the bench has quickly developed into a facility for events and meetings. When the Kim Larsen – a very well know Danish singer – died, the bench played back some of his famous songs – establishing a place that allowed citizens to share memories and the loss of the loved singer. The bench in general allows for a continuous exploration of sound as a positive force in creating a place for recreation and meetings. It may be used to mark events and to display work of local musicians, podcasts produced by school children etc. In this way it acts as a local poster wall of sound, and a new meeting place.
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