WMBstudio installs bench micropark on busy london street

WMBstudio installs bench micropark on busy london street
all images courtesy of WMBstudio

WMBstudio has designed and installed ‘parked bench’– a temporary parklet located on a busy street in the london bridge area. the portable micro-park replaces two standard car parking spaces, with the aim of providing urban greening, public seating, and to raise awareness of air quality issues in the capital. the approach was to create a singular sculptural seating element around which zones of planting and small pockets of public space could occur and overlap, encouraging passers-by to stop and gather. the resulting interwoven sequence of seating and planting, provides a buffer zone to the busy road, and creates an organic extension of the pavement to encourage chance meetings and natural interactions.

the parklet provides an unexpected respite from the bustling street 

constructed as a modular solution, it can be applied to a variety of different locations, and scaled to respond to the specifics of each site. the parklet also houses an air quality monitor that feeds real-time data to an app and website designed by kings college london, forming part of their wider network of air quality data collection points within london. this first parklet has been delivered as part of the team london bridge ‘fresh air squares’ initiative, supported by the transport for london future streets incubator, with further versions due to be installed in the london bridge area in 2016.

the bench seating is constructed entirely from re-purposed scaffold boards

materials are low cost and off-the shelf, with the bench and base elements constructed entirely from standard scaffolding boards. the vertical sides of each board have been painted vibrant red to signpost the parklet from afar, and when approached, to create a contrasting, shifting vertical pattern. the modular planters are raw galvanized steel, and have been designed to be reused individually or in a number of linked configurations.

as the bench undulates, pockets of space extend the pavement zone 

the seat back rises and falls to reveal and highlight the planting zones

the planting has been selected to be tactile, colourful and animated

red boards contrast with the green planting and heighten the visual impact 

the colour and form contrast vibrantly with the surroundings 

galvanized planters on the roadside elevation act as a protective buffer 

the modular design is scalable and a number of parklets can be linked 

plan 

elevation

project info:

design + fabrication: wmbstudio
client: team london bridge / transport for london
planting: cjs plants
air quality monitoring: king’s college london
planter fabrication: outdoor design

photography: ed butler and mickey lee

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: juliana neira | designboom