courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
London studio Soft Baroque's "Spring Break" bench was inspired by the bouncy rockers found in many play parks.

"It was an opportunity to create a really highly finished and mature version of these familiar park toys," said designer Nicholas Gardner of the two-person bench.
courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
Märta Hägglund and Sanna Gripner -- the only participating Swedish designers -- wanted to develop comfortable seating to encourage visitors to linger. Their "Cushy" bench is inspired by indoor furnishings, and features surfaces made from springy metal mesh.
Courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
Italian architect Luca Cipelletti uses dried cow dung mixed with clay to create a material he calls Merdacotta. This material was used to create gigantic bricks compiled in an L-shape that encourages users to sit in different ways and enjoy various views of the park.
Courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
"Rotunda" by Ifeanyi Oganwu functions both as a bench and an enclosed space that can be used as a miniature amphitheater.

"I was interested in the idea of a folly -- something that is not quite architecture, not landscape and not sculpture," the designer said.
Courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
Five of the park's existing benches were refurbished by Dutch studio Scholten & Baijings, which worked with a skilled airbrushing technician to apply its signature colored gradients. Every bench is unique, but the colors flow from one bench to the next to create continuity throughout the park.
courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
Beijing architect Naihan Li created a seating landscape comprising a cluster of rammed-earth extrusions topped with metal plates or grass that will grow in over time. The construction method references the materiality of the Great Wall of China, and the pixelated form is reminiscent of classic computer games.
Courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
People can perch on, lean against, hang from or walk along London designer Max Lamb's gently zigzagging linear benches. Made from single lengths of stainless steel tube that was manipulated using a computer-controlled bending machine, the three benches are influenced by materials and forms found in urban environments.
PHOTOGRAPHER JEZZICA SUNMO
Philippe Malouin drew inspiration from street furniture such as bollards when creating his cylindrical shelter, which is cast from six concrete sections. The inner surfaces are smooth concrete, while the outside is pebble-dashed to accentuate its urban character.
Courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
Los Angeles designer Jonathan Olivares visited the site in 2016 and discovered disused boules courts, which were renovated and improved with the introduction of a curving bench. It was made using a rolled metal surface with the same width as a new concrete border around the courts.
Courtesy Jezzica Sunmo
A group portrait of the architects and curators.
CNN  — 

The park bench is a familiar and often overlooked design that exists in cities across the world. Typically designed to have mass appeal, and manufactured from materials that can withstand frequent use, constant exposure to the elements and vandalism, these seats provide a valuable but perhaps unrecognized service.

As part of a development project aimed at revitalizing Stockholm’s Järfälla suburb, 10 leading international designers were invited to create alternative benches for the neighborhood’s neglected Kvarnbacken park. The outcomes of the Superbenches project challenge the conventional notion of public seating and vary drastically in their execution, ranging from playful outdoor lounge furniture to a curving mini amphitheater.

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Superbenches forms part of a wider two-year research and communication initiative called Kalejdohill, which was launched by property developers HSB, Veidekke Bostad and Einar Mattsson to help reactivate Kvarnbacken park as an attractive meeting place for local residents.

Following an announcement that several hundred new homes will be built in the area, the developers invited curators Andreas Angelidakis and Mia Lundstrom to oversee a series of events and interventions to foster a sense of pride in the neighborhood. The project also encourages current residents to contribute ideas and suggestions that will ultimately help to shape the planning process.

Courtesy JEZZICA SUNMO
A close-up of "Cushy" by Hagglund & Gripner

New York-based creative director and writer Felix Burrichter was brought in to select the designers for the Superbenches installation, and set a brief that urged them to break away from preconceived notions of what a park bench should look like.

“I was hoping we would achieve a great variety of different benches and that’s certainly the case,” said Burrichter at the project’s launch. “Some of them aren’t even benches in the classic sense, but what many of them do is foster the community of the overall park, as well as creating moments of leisure and pleasure and different kinds of use.”

Burrichter also encouraged the designers to consider the idea of the folly – an architectural intervention created purely for decorative purposes – when coming up with their proposals for the benches. This inspiration is most evident in London-based designer Philippe Malouin’s brutalist-inflected cylindrical seating structure.

Architect Ifeanyi Oganwu and designer Naihan Li also created solutions with an architectural scale, while Max Lamb’s curving steel tubes utilize a typical urban material, and London studio Soft Baroque created an adult take on the playground springer.

Dutch studio Scholten & Baijings and LA-based designer Jonathan Olivares both sought to improve the park’s existing infrastructure, with the former applying colored gradients to the wooden seats and backs of five existing benches, and the latter placing a curving bench alongside a pair of renovated boules courts.

Appropriately for a project aimed at engaging with the local community, the inhabitants of Järfälla will be asked in a year’s time to decide which, if any, of the Superbenches they want to remain in the park. Feedback from residents at the opening event was predominantly positive, meaning these alternative benches might well become a permanent part of Kvarnbacken’s future.