Earlier this year, the LFA and Network Rail ran a competition, the Sitting Pretty contest, for architecture and design students, recent graduates and emerging practitioners to create engaging and imaginative seating proposals that would help re-energise under-used public space within London rail stations.
With the opportunity to completely transform how passengers sit and wait for their trains, the competition sought to inform a prototype for how a future of station seating might look, with the potential for winning ideas to be replicated across stations by Network Rail in the future. The winning teams were picked from 70 entrants and each received £5,000 to develop and manufacture their designs, which were installed and unveiled this month.
MArch student Luke entered the competition in collaboration with Josh Haywood, who founded Hylemo in 2016. Together they designed their winning bench, Beluga, which has now been installed at Victoria Station in London.
From catwalks to festivals, Hylemo specialises in the production of parametric pavilions delivered through digital fabrication. Delivered in collaboration with Ai Build – developers of 3D printing technology driven by robotic arms – Hylemo wishes to challenge the way furniture in the public domain is produced; reducing material waste to zero and engaging in the circular economy of materials.
Through the boundless opportunity of forms offered by additive manufacturing, Hylemo & Ai Build have created a bench that explores the application of 3D printing to recycled plastics to create waste-free furniture, offering limitless forms and intriguing passers-by.
Find out more about the competition and the winning designs here.
