(Situ, New York)
(In collaboration with James Corner Field Operations)
This project, I did while doing my internship with Situ Studio, New York, 2010. It was a project undertaken by James Corner Field Operations, and then Situ did bench-design. A main design-element, the bench was designed to tie the entire roof terrace together, as a string around the outer perimeter of the roof.
So, the job was to create an undulating CNC-milled wood ribbon to could wrap around the terrace’s perimeter providing seating and edging for a grass and perennial filled planter. The ribbon gently rises up and down responding to interior and City views and shaping furnishing elements including a communal sofa, a chaise lounge, a dining area, and intimate seating alcoves and overlooks.
My job was to do prototyping of the bench-concept, while also developing the digital tools for the job, including Grasshopper-defintions, that took into account all the fabrication-needs, the dimension (thickness) of the wood ribs as well as doing outtakes of the bench in various places, where electrical outlets, passages and views, and other installations were to be taken into account.
The planting design consists of a flowering meadow with species selected for their hardiness and adaptability to the terrace’s sunny and windy conditions. A grassland matrix provides consistency, with punctuated and theatrical blooms of perennials and bulbs for diversity, seasonal interest, texture, fragrance and height and color variation. In select locations, groupings of small, multi-stemmed trees and lowlying shrubs help to create sheltered and intimate spaces.
Bloom times are choreographed with each season, creating a dynamic setting.
We did prototyping in-house, in scale one-to-one, which was super interesting - to be able to see the outcome from the digital models, exactly as they were, touchable, material studies, in-house, is what makes projects of this scale, extremely interesting, and what tabs directly into the loop of -
design ->
sketch ->
digital tools ->
prototyping (in-house) ->
round-table discussion of the outcome ->
re-ireterating the design ->
sketch ->
digital tools ->
new prototype
round-table discussion of the outcome ->
...
Lighting
A simple lighting scheme illuminates the terrace’s distinctive furnishing, planting, and social areas used most frequently at night. A flexible LED rope light is integrated into the base of the ribbon providing a consistent line of light.
Small light wands are randomly dispersed in the planting beds highlighting signature species and arrangements.