Tree Bench: A Mobile Sitting Unit For Urban Parks

As part of his ‘Aandeboom’ series, which means something like ‘attached to trees’, the Utrecht-based spatial designer Rogier Martens has come up with a remarkable design for a pop-up bench for urban parks and landscapes. Invited by the Dutch city of Amersfoort to design a temporary bench for a local park, Martens created this Tree Bench. The bench is specifically suited for festivals and other temporary situations with urgent sitting needs. The Tree Benches are made of waterproof laminated beechwood and can be easily attached to the trees using a suspension system.

“It is no challenge to just dig a hole and a install a bench. An ideal bench need the environment and the environment needs the bench too. To achieve that goal a bench contributes to the park as a walk, sit, rest, kiss, lie, meet, watch, dog walk, day-dream, stretch, run, think, decide, smoke and lunch spot.”

Elements from the forest have inspired Martens to take this form. Some forest mushrooms are attached to the trees in the same way. Also these mushrooms temporarily use the forest, depending on weather conditions. When the humidity or temperature changes they disappear. As Martens explained during his presentation at PechaKucha Amsterdam #20, the Tree Benches need no further explanation: “visitors will understand that they are made to sit on”.

Also other designs in the Aandeboom series, such as the P-Tree, are interesting practical ideas for temporary situations like festivals. Make sure to check out the Aandeboom website, which is also the place to buy yourself a unique Tree Bench.

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