BEN

While the mental pieces of the project took years to form, the bench was constructed in a week. Ideas can take time to mature and grow before they can be realized.

While on vacation at the beach one summer,  I experienced my first Adirondack char and immediately fell in love with it. I wondered why their dimensions weren’t used more widely in furniture design since it was so comfortable. I wanted to recreate that comfortable, relaxed experience with something that was more suitable for indoor relaxation. Fast forward a few years into college, before I started building the bench, I had gotten very interested in the Netherlands during an interior architecture studio and while reading Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football by David Winner, I learned how Dutch culture during the 20th century was influencing their national football (soccer) identity and vice versa. The similarities went deep into their culture and included influencing city planning, politics, arts, and the Dutch mind set.

De Stijl (The Style)

A movement that was about a new aesthetic conscious and objective art based on clear principles. These new principles applied to fine arts, city/town planning, applied arts, and philosophy. There was a clear focus on reduction of form and simple abstractism. It does not attempt to fill all space, but achieve a floating aspect and a reduction to the essentials of form and color. De Stijl forced the viewer to ponder about their relationship to the world, relating to form, color, & surrounding space. Mondrian and Van Doesburg (two of the more influential members) eventually had a falling out over the thought of including the diagonal into the movement.

I wanted to achieve something similar to the De Stijl style with this project. The mentions of “reduction of form”, “simple abstraction”, and “a floating aspect” all came together with my previous inspiration of the Adirondack chair, but with something slightly adjusted to fit my frame (6’2″). I played with forms, shapes, and methods of construction until I arrived at something similar to the simplified logo you see in the second image below. Adding a frame to the bench provided stability both visually and physically, while allowing the seat to “float” in similar dimensions you would get from an Adirondack chair. I was really pleased with the way the project finished, rather than sticking a test on my fridge with my final exam to celebrate the end of college, I was able to bring home a bench to sit on for years to come.

As life is constantly changing, so are priorities. Ben has continued to evolve in this concept with further reduction in form, removing the outer frame allows it to sit lower and bring additional stability to the experience. It’s unclear if it will continue to evolve, but core principals will remain.