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The Longest Bench
Designers Studio Weave have installed a 324 metre-long bench on the seafront at Littlehampton in the UK
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Providing seating for 300 people, the bench is made of reclaimed tropical hardwood, salvaged from landfill and old seaside groynes with colourful stainless steel bars inserted wherever the form twists, bends or dips. Two bronze shelters enclose more frantic loops in the structure and frame views towards and away from the sea. The bench is already the longest in the UK and there are plans to extend it to 621m.
The structure sinuously travels along the promenade, meandering around lampposts, bending behind bins, and ducking down into the ground to allow access between the beach and the Green. Like a seaside boardwalk the Longest Bench rests on its habitat and adapts to its surroundings while like a charm bracelet it connects and defines the promenade as a whole, underlining it as a collection of special places that can be added to throughout its lifetime.
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Accompanying the long bench are two bronze-finished steel monocoque loops that connect the promenade with the green behind it. As the bench arrives inside the twisting loops it goes a little bit haywire, bouncing of the walls and ceiling creating seats and openings. The loop contains the haywire stretch of bench and frames the views each way.
To inspire and develop the project, Studio Weave worked with pupils from Connaught Junior School who explored what makes Littlehampton’s seaside unique and offered insightful ideas including the bright colour pallet and dynamic shelters.
The bench is made from thousands of tropical hardwood slats. The timber is 100% reclaimed from sources including old seaside groynes and rescued from landfill. Tropical hardwoods are some of the most robust and long lasting timbers in the world and they have a proven track record in marine environments. The bench uses more than a dozen different species arranged to express the natural variation in colour and tone from pale blonds to warm pinks and rich browns.
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The variety of reclaimed timbers are interspersed with splashes of bright colour wherever the bench wiggles, bends or dips. The coloured bars are made from stainless steel box sections dipped in Nylon-11, a polymer enamel. The brightly coloured bars are arranged to create a subtly changing colour scheme from pink, yellow and orange at the east end to purple, blue and green at the west. The support structure for the bench is made from stainless steel, a 100% recyclable and on average 70% recycled material (Steel Construction Institute).
The two shelters are steel monocoque structures spray coated with Aluminium Bronze which gives them their golden finish. Over time, the bronze shelters will settle into their coastal environment naturally gathering salt streaks and verdigris on the more exposed areas while maintaining a warm golden glow inside.
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