Social Seating: 14 Public Benches Foster Urban Interactions

Breaking, bending, twisting and warping wood, this ongoing series of
installations fosters new forms of interaction within cities,
challenging that most iconic piece civic furniture: the public bench.

Award-winning artist Jeppe Hein from
Copenhagen (currently working in Berlin) has installed his Modified
Social Benches at indoor galleries and outside in cities around the
world.

To their creator, these are about more than just sculptural expression – on their origins: “Out of investigating architecture, communication, and social behavior in the urban space, a series of bench designs was born.”

Some engender specific and calculated responses, like sitting and
facing your seatmate or climbing to reach an elevated seat suspended
above. Others are more like puzzles or mysteries – it is up to the user
to figure out what to do with them.