Sitting Pretty enjoy their new home
Following a design competition in 2020, LFA and Network Rail revealed a series of benches by emerging architects and designers at some of London’s largest railway stations.
The benches have now left the stations and have found permanent homes across schools in London, continuing to bring joy to young Londoners.
This engaging series of new installations demonstrates how inventive architecture and design can make a real difference to the everyday travelling experience in Britain’s railway stations, and will now hopefully be a creative spot for school pupils to sit, relax and play.
Take a look below to see a glimpse of the benches in their new homes!
Beluga by Hylemo & Ai Build at Norlington School, Leyton
Hylemo and Ai Build’s 3D printed Beluga bench now resides at Norlington School’s year 10 common room, hoping to catch the imaginations of the students as a completely waste-free and creative design for simple piece of furniture.
Lacuna by Nick Tyrer with Victoria Philpott at Sarah Bonnell School, Stratford
Sarah Bonnell School in Newham, who’s year 9 students took part in NLA’s Homes for Londoners’ conference in 2019, are now enjoying Nick Tyrer and Victoria Philpott’s Lacuna bench in their new building. We hope the bench will be a source of inspiration for aspiring female architects and engineers at Sarah Bonnell.
ConvoStation by The United Suburbs at Cumberland Community School, Plaistow
We’re thrilled to share that The United Suburb’s colourful ConvoStation bench is now being enjoyed by pupils at Cumberland Community School in Newham, forming part of their new sensory garden for their SEN students.
These commissions are part of our series of public installations that harness and celebrate emerging architectural and design talent, while improving London’s shared spaces and connecting people with new architecture and the buildings around them.
As a Festival, we are committed to the legacy of our installations and sustainable design, and now, with the benches having found permanent places in schools and a number of public organisations across the capital, we hope that they can continue to have a long-term positive impact.
We can’t wait to share more images of all the 2020 City Benches in their new homes soon, so be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and keep up with our newsletter to find out more – watch this space!
